CVE-2021-21276

CRITICAL

polr < 2.3.0 - Unauthenticated Admin Account Creation via Setup Finish Endpoint

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2021-21276. PoCs published by p4kl0nc4t.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This exploit leverages a vulnerability in POLR URL Shortener's setup process to bypass authentication and create an admin account by manipulating the 'setup_arguments' cookie. The payload includes admin credentials and is sent via a GET request to the setup endpoint.

Description

Polr is an open source URL shortener. in Polr before version 2.3.0, a vulnerability in the setup process allows attackers to gain admin access to site instances, even if they do not possess an existing account. This vulnerability exists regardless of users' settings. If an attacker crafts a request with specific cookie headers to the /setup/finish endpoint, they may be able to obtain admin privileges on the instance. This is caused by a loose comparison (==) in SetupController that is susceptible to attack. The project has been patched to ensure that a strict comparison (===) is used to verify the setup key, and that /setup/finish verifies that no users table exists before performing any migrations or provisioning any new accounts. This is fixed in version 2.3.0. Users can patch this vulnerability without upgrading by adding abort(404) to the very first line of finishSetup in SetupController.php.

Exploits (1)

exploitdb WORKING POC
by p4kl0nc4t · pythonwebappsphp
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/51277

This exploit leverages a vulnerability in POLR URL Shortener's setup process to bypass authentication and create an admin account by manipulating the 'setup_arguments' cookie. The payload includes admin credentials and is sent via a GET request to the setup endpoint.

Classification
Working Poc 90%
Attack Type
Auth Bypass
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: POLR URL Shortener < 2.3.0
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Access to the target's setup endpoint · Target must be in setup mode
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

Scores

CVSS v3 9.3
EPSS 0.0716
EPSS Percentile 93.5%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N

Details

CWE
CWE-863
Status published
Products (1)
polrproject/polr < 2.3.0
Published Feb 01, 2021
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026