CVE-2021-23354 | Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS)

Exp

The package printf before 0.6.1 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) via the regex string /\%(?:\(([\w_.]+)\)|([1-9]\d*)\$)?([0 +\-\]*)(\*|\d+)?(\.)?(\*|\d+)?[hlL]?([\%bscdeEfFgGioOuxX])/g in lib/printf.js. The vulnerable regular expression has cubic worst-case time complexity.

Published: 2021-03-12 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-23354 is rated Exploit Available (52.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.40%). 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-2021-23354

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-23354

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 2025-03-30 4.38% 0.40% -3.98%
2 2025-03-29 0.40% 4.38% +3.98%
3 2025-03-17 — 0.40% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-23354

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L 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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P 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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-23354

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-23354

GHSA-xfhp-gmh8-r8v2 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: npm — printf vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS)

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-23354

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
adaltas printf < 0.6.1 cpe:2.3:a:adaltas:printf:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2021-23354

URL Tags
https://github.com/adaltas/node-printf/issues/31 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/adaltas/node-printf/pull/32 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-PRINTF-1072096 Broken Link
cvelogic Threat Intelligence