CVE-2021-28153

Exp

An issue was discovered in GNOME GLib before 2.66.8. When g_file_replace() is used with G_FILE_CREATE_REPLACE_DESTINATION to replace a path that is a dangling symlink, it incorrectly also creates the target of the symlink as an empty file, which could conceivably have security relevance if the symlink is attacker-controlled. (If the path is a symlink to a file that already exists, then the contents of that file correctly remain unchanged.)

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

CVE-2021-28153 is rated High Exploit Risk (67.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.62%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.87% 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-2021-28153

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-28153

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 0.75% 2.62% +1.87%
2 2026-04-12 0.57% 0.75% +0.17%
3 2026-01-08 — 0.57% —

Full EPSS history (32 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-28153

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:L/A:N 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:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N 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:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-28153

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-28153

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2021-28153: 1 source package rows (glib); 18 state rows across 8 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 18. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-28153
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-28153 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (glib2.0), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-28153
gentoo normal CVE-2021-28153: 1 GLSA(s) (202107-13), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/glib); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-28153
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-28153
suse low CVE-2021-28153 severity low: SUSE including 362 source package names (0.23.0.3.2.368:libglib-2_0-0-2.62.6-150200.3.10.1, 1.10.1.16.4.5.328:glib2-tools-2.62.6-150200.3.10.1, …), 1200 product×package rows across 135 product lines (Container caasp/v4/cilium, Container caasp/v4/cilium-operator, … (135 product lines)): Fixed 738, Known Not Affected 275, Known Affected 187. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-28153/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-28153 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (glib2.0), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 10, released 5, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-28153

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-28153

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnome glib < 2.66.8 cpe:2.3:a:gnome:glib:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
broadcom brocade_fabric_operating_system_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:broadcom:brocade_fabric_operating_system_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-28153

cvelogic Threat Intelligence