CVE-2021-41598
CWE-451Published: January 25, 2022· Updated: Jun 17, 2026
Official Description
A UI misrepresentation vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed more permissions to be granted during a GitHub App's user-authorization web flow than was displayed to the user during approval. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to create a GitHub App on the instance and have a user authorize the application through the web authentication flow. All permissions being granted would properly be shown during the first authorization, but if the user later updated the set of repositories the app was installed on after the GitHub App had configured additional user-level permissions, those additional permissions would not be displayed, leading to more permissions being granted than the user potentially intended. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.3 and was fixed in versions 3.2.5, 3.1.13, 3.0.21. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.
Technical Analysis
CVE-2021-41598 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.
Exploitation does not require any privileges, though user interaction (Required) is needed, which slightly reduces the risk of mass automated attacks.
A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 8.8.
CVSS v3.1 Vector Breakdown
Affected Vendors & Products
Exploit & PoC Resources
All References (6)
Quick Facts
Related CVEs (CWE-451)
Recommended Actions
- →Apply vendor patches immediately
- →Monitor CVE-2021-41598 in threat intel feeds
- →Review IDS/IPS signatures for exploitation attempts