# CVE-2026-21766: HCL Digital Experience and Digital Experience Compose insufficiently protects credentials

> Attackers can read sensitive credentials from web server logs if specific configurations are used with the default login portlet.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vjj9-w76c-7q84

## What is CVE-2026-21766?

CVE-2026-21766 is a medium-severity vulnerability in HCLSoftware HCL Digital Experience and Digital Experience Compose, published on 5 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

The default login portlet in HCL Digital Experience and Digital Experience Compose insufficiently protects credentials.  Under certain very specific use cases and specific configurations, sensitive information may be written to web server logs.  This only affects applications using the default login portlet.

Weakness: CWE-532 (Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File), CWE-522 (Insufficiently Protected Credentials)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-21766?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-21766?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-21766 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-21766 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-21766 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-21766 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-21766 is a medium-severity vulnerability in HCLSoftware HCL Digital Experience and Digital Experience Compose, published on 5 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-21766 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: HCLSoftware HCL Digital Experience and Digital Experience Compose. 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-2026-21766/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-21766/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-21766
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-21766
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-21766

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-21766/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.