CVE-2021-42561

HIGH

MITRE Caldera < 2.8.1 - OS Command Injection via Human Plugin Name Parameter

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2021-42561. PoCs published by mbadanoiu.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This repository describes a command injection vulnerability (CVE-2021-42561) in MITRE Caldera's Human plugin, where unsanitized input is passed to an 'os.system' call, allowing arbitrary command execution. The README provides details and references a PDF for exploitation steps.

Description

An issue was discovered in CALDERA 2.8.1. When activated, the Human plugin passes the unsanitized name parameter to a python "os.system" function. This allows attackers to use shell metacharacters (e.g., backticks "``" or dollar parenthesis "$()" ) in order to escape the current command and execute arbitrary shell commands.

Exploits (1)

nomisec WRITEUP
by mbadanoiu · poc
https://github.com/mbadanoiu/CVE-2021-42561

This repository describes a command injection vulnerability (CVE-2021-42561) in MITRE Caldera's Human plugin, where unsanitized input is passed to an 'os.system' call, allowing arbitrary command execution. The README provides details and references a PDF for exploitation steps.

Classification
Writeup 90%
Attack Type
Rce
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: MITRE Caldera <= 2.8.1
Auth required
Prerequisites: Valid user credentials
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

References (2)

Core 2
Core References
Release Notes, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/mitre/caldera/releases

Scores

CVSS v3 8.8
EPSS 0.1957
EPSS Percentile 97.0%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-74
Status published
Products (1)
mitre/caldera < 2.8.1
Published Jan 12, 2022
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026