CVE-2021-28657 | Infinite loop in Apache Tika's MP3 parser

A carefully crafted or corrupt file may trigger an infinite loop in Tika's MP3Parser up to and including Tika 1.25. Apache Tika users should upgrade to 1.26 or later.

Published: 2021-03-31 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-28657 is rated Low Risk (37.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.22%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2021-28657

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 2026-01-30 0.36% 0.22% -0.14%
2 2026-01-29 0.18% 0.36% +0.18%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.18% —

Full EPSS history (23 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-28657

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-2021-28657

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-28657

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-28657

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-28657 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (tika), 2 status rows across 2 suites (bullseye, sid): open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-28657
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-28657
suse medium CVE-2021-28657 severity moderate: SUSE including 326 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 327 product×package rows across 5 product lines (SUSE Manager Server Module 4.0, SUSE Manager Server Module 4.1, … (5 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Fixed 94, Known Not Affected 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-28657/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-28657 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (tika), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 8, needs-triage 7, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-28657

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-28657

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
apache tika <= 1.25 cpe:2.3:a:apache:tika:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle healthcare_foundation 7.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:healthcare_foundation:7.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle healthcare_foundation 8.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:healthcare_foundation:8.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle healthcare_foundation 8.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:healthcare_foundation:8.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle primavera_unifier >= 17.7, <= 17.12 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:primavera_unifier:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle primavera_unifier 18.8 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:primavera_unifier:18.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle primavera_unifier 19.12 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:primavera_unifier:19.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle primavera_unifier 20.12 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:primavera_unifier:20.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle webcenter_portal 12.2.1.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:webcenter_portal:12.2.1.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle webcenter_portal 12.2.1.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:webcenter_portal:12.2.1.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_messaging_server 8.1 cpe:2.3:o:oracle:communications_messaging_server:8.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-28657

cvelogic Threat Intelligence