CVE-2021-27815

Exp

NULL Pointer Deference in the exif command line tool, when printing out XML formatted EXIF data, in exif v0.6.22 and earlier allows attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by uploading a malicious JPEG file, causing the application to crash.

Published: 2021-04-14 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-27815 is rated High Exploit Risk (61.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.27%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.05% 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-2021-27815

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-27815

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 0.21% 1.27% +1.05%
2 2025-11-01 0.32% 0.21% -0.10%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.32% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-27815

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-27815

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-27815

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2021-27815 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (exif), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-27815
gentoo low CVE-2021-27815: 1 GLSA(s) (202210-28), 1 atom(s) (media-gfx/exif); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-27815
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-27815
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-27815/
ubuntu low CVE-2021-27815 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (exif), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 8, needed 3, not-affected 3, DNE 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-27815

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-27815

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libexif_project exif <= 0.6.22 cpe:2.3:a:libexif_project:exif:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 34 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-27815

cvelogic Threat Intelligence