CVE-2021-23165

Exp

A flaw was found in htmldoc before v1.9.12. Heap buffer overflow in pspdf_prepare_outpages(), in ps-pdf.cxx may lead to execute arbitrary code and denial of service.

Published: 2022-03-16 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-23165 is rated High Exploit Risk (87.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.29%). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.89% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2021-23165

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-23165

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.41% 3.29% +2.89%
2 2025-11-21 3.92% 0.41% -3.52%
3 2025-11-18 — 3.92% —

Full EPSS history (22 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-23165

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
10.0 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 10.0 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-23165

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-23165

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-23165 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (htmldoc), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-23165
gentoo normal CVE-2021-23165: 1 GLSA(s) (202405-07), 1 atom(s) (app-text/htmldoc); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-23165
suse critical — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-23165/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-23165 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (htmldoc), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5, ignored 2, not-affected 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-23165

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-23165

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
htmldoc_project htmldoc < 1.9.12 cpe:2.3:a:htmldoc_project:htmldoc:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-23165

cvelogic Threat Intelligence