CVE-2021-32780 | Incorrect handling of H/2 GOAWAY followed by SETTINGS frames

Envoy is an open source L7 proxy and communication bus designed for large modern service oriented architectures. In affected versions Envoy transitions a H/2 connection to the CLOSED state when it receives a GOAWAY frame without any streams outstanding. The connection state is transitioned to DRAINING when it receives a SETTING frame with the SETTINGS_MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS parameter set to 0. Receiving these two frames in the same I/O event results in abnormal termination of the Envoy process due to invalid state transition from CLOSED to DRAINING. A sequence of H/2 frames delivered by an untrusted upstream server will result in Denial of Service in the presence of untrusted **upstream** servers. Envoy versions 1.19.1, 1.18.4 contain fixes to stop processing of pending H/2 frames after connection transition to the CLOSED state.

Published: 2021-08-24 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-32780 is rated Moderate Risk (57.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.19%). EPSS rose +1.11% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule 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-2021-32780

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 0.08% 1.19% +1.11%
2 2025-03-30 0.16% 0.08% -0.08%
3 2025-03-29 — 0.16% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-32780

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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 4.0 [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-2021-32780

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-32780

vendor priority summary link
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-32780

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-32780

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
envoyproxy envoy >= 1.18.0, < 1.18.4 cpe:2.3:a:envoyproxy:envoy:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
envoyproxy envoy 1.19.0 cpe:2.3:a:envoyproxy:envoy:1.19.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-32780

cvelogic Threat Intelligence