CVE-2021-23239

Exp

The sudoedit personality of Sudo before 1.9.5 may allow a local unprivileged user to perform arbitrary directory-existence tests by winning a sudo_edit.c race condition in replacing a user-controlled directory by a symlink to an arbitrary path.

Published: 2021-01-12 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-23239 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.10%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2021-23239

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-23239

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 2026-04-21 0.15% 0.10% -0.06%
2 2026-02-01 0.05% 0.15% +0.10%
3 2025-10-11 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-23239

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
2.5 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.0 1.4 [email protected]
1.9 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 3.4 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-23239

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-23239

vendor priority summary link
alpine low CVE-2021-23239: 1 source package rows (sudo); 22 state rows across 11 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 11, open 11. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-23239
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-23239 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (sudo), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-23239
gentoo high CVE-2021-23239: 1 GLSA(s) (202101-33), 1 atom(s) (app-admin/sudo); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-23239
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-23239
suse low CVE-2021-23239 severity low: SUSE including 285 source package names (1.1.1.0.1.5.424:sudo-1.8.22-4.15.1, 1.2.0.0.1.5.430:sudo-1.8.22-4.15.1, …), 366 product×package rows across 90 product lines (Container ses/6/cephcsi/cephcsi, Container ses/6/rook/ceph, … (90 product lines)): Fixed 238, Known Affected 124, Known Not Affected 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-23239/
ubuntu low CVE-2021-23239 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (sudo), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 14, needed 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-23239

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-23239

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sudo_project sudo < 1.8.32 cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
sudo_project sudo >= 1.9.0, < 1.9.5 cpe:2.3:a:sudo_project:sudo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp cloud_backup — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:cloud_backup:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp hci_management_node — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:hci_management_node:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp solidfire — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:solidfire:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-23239

cvelogic Threat Intelligence