# CVE-2021-40699: ColdFusion CFIDE Improper Access Control Leads To Privilege Escalation

> An authenticated attacker can exploit improper access control in ColdFusion to escalate privileges and manipulate arbitrary data.

- **Severity:** High 7.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 Sep 2023
- **Updated:** 4 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-pjjp-267v-j839

## What is CVE-2021-40699?

CVE-2021-40699 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Adobe Coldfusion, published on 7 Sep 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

ColdFusion version 2021 update 1 (and earlier) and versions 2018.10 (and earlier) are impacted by an improper access control vulnerability when checking permissions in the CFIDE path. An authenticated attacker could leverage this vulnerability to access and manipulate arbitrary data on the environment.

Weakness: CWE-284 (Improper Access Control)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-40699?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Adobe Coldfusion.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-40699?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-40699 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-40699 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-40699 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Adobe Coldfusion

- [CVE-2026-48282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48282/): Adobe ColdFusion Path Traversal (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-38203](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-38203/): Adobe ColdFusion Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-29300](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-29300/): Adobe ColdFusion Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-26359](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-26359/): Adobe ColdFusion Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-15961](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15961/): Adobe ColdFusion Unrestricted File Upload (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-40699 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-40699 is a high-severity missing authorization vulnerability in Adobe Coldfusion, published on 7 Sep 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-40699 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Adobe Coldfusion. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40699/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40699/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-40699
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-40699
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-40699

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40699/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.