CVE-2021-25289

An issue was discovered in Pillow before 8.1.1. TiffDecode has a heap-based buffer overflow when decoding crafted YCbCr files because of certain interpretation conflicts with LibTIFF in RGBA mode. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2020-35654.

Published: 2021-03-19 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-25289 is rated High Risk (69/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.28%). EPSS rose +1.52% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-25289

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 0.76% 2.28% +1.52%
2 2026-04-21 0.21% 0.76% +0.56%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.21% —

Full EPSS history (18 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-25289

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]
7.5 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-25289

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-25289

GHSA-57h3-9rgr-c24m · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: pip — Out of bounds write in Pillow

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-25289

vendor priority summary link
alpine critical CVE-2021-25289: 1 source package rows (py3-pillow); 8 state rows across 8 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 8, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-25289
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-25289 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pillow), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-25289
gentoo normal CVE-2021-25289: 1 GLSA(s) (202107-33), 1 atom(s) (dev-python/pillow); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-25289
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-25289
suse critical CVE-2021-25289 severity critical: SUSE including 24 source package names (python-Pillow, python3-CairoSVG-2.5.1-lp152.2.3.1, …), 52 product×package rows across 20 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS, … (20 product lines)): Known Not Affected 27, Fixed 25. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-25289/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-25289 medium priority: Ubuntu including 3 source packages (pillow, pillow-python2, python-imaging), 48 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 28, not-affected 13, needs-triage 3, released 3, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-25289

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-25289

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
python pillow < 8.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:python:pillow:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-25289

cvelogic Threat Intelligence