KEV Intelligence

Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild High confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2021-41266

Authentication bypass issue in the Operator Console

minio / console · affected before 0.12.3

View live feed Monitor via API Watch CVE
Severity
CVSS 8.6 · High
Confidence
High
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
48.4%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2021-41266 is an unauthenticated Authentication bypass issue in the Operator Console. Minio console is a graphical user interface for the for MinIO operator. Minio itself is a multi-cloud object storage project....

Is it exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is high.

Who is affected?

minio / console affected before 0.12.3.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Minio console is a graphical user interface for the for MinIO operator

Minio console is a graphical user interface for the for MinIO operator. Minio itself is a multi-cloud object storage project. Affected versions are subject to an authentication bypass issue in the Operator Console when an external IDP is enabled.

All users on release v0.12.2 and before are affected and are advised to update to 0.12.3 or newer. Users unable to upgrade should add automountServiceAccountToken: false to the operator-console deployment in Kubernetes so no service account token will get mounted inside the pod, then disable the external identity provider authentication by unset the CONSOLE_IDP_URL, CONSOLE_IDP_CLIENT_ID, CONSOLE_IDP_SECRET and CONSOLE_IDP_CALLBACK environment variable and instead use the Kubernetes service account token.

Vendor Product Affected Status
minio console Before 0.12.3 Affected
Published
15 Nov 2021
Exploitation Reported
06 Jul 2025
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

nuclei_scanner

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-41266
  • GitHub — minio/console github.com · CVE Record https://github.com/minio/console/security/advisories/GHSA-4999-659w-mq36
  • GitHub — minio/console github.com · CVE Record https://github.com/minio/console/pull/1217

Exploitation evidence

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

The Shadowserver

Recorded 06 Jul 2025

Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.

Proof of concept available

Nuclei Templates

Recorded 12 Jun 2026

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
The Shadowserver First 2025-07-06 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
0
User-Agents
0

Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2021/CVE-2021-41266.yaml 25 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

8.6 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L

EPSS

48.4%

Weaknesses

Missing Authentication for Critical Function CWE-306

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

MinIO Operator Console Authentication Bypass

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  2. Added to KEV Intelligence KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  3. Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  4. CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

View Pro pricing Read API docs
  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2021-41266

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2021-41266",
  "confidence": "High",
  "cvss_score": 8.6,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.48414,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}

Early warning alerts

Get alerts on high-impact exploitation

Receive curator-selected alerts when exploitation activity warrants attention. Each alert includes the evidence and context needed to decide what requires attention now.

Occasional high-impact alerts. Unsubscribe anytime. See our Privacy Policy.