CVE-2021-33621

Exp

The cgi gem before 0.1.0.2, 0.2.x before 0.2.2, and 0.3.x before 0.3.5 for Ruby allows HTTP response splitting. This is relevant to applications that use untrusted user input either to generate an HTTP response or to create a CGI::Cookie object.

Published: 2022-11-18 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-33621 is rated High Exploit Risk (79.7/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.29%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.19% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: 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-2021-33621

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-33621

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 1.10% 2.29% +1.19%
2 2026-06-08 1.01% 1.10% +0.09%
3 2026-06-04 1.01%

Full EPSS history (61 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-33621

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-33621

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-33621

GHSA-vc47-6rqg-c7f5 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: rubygems — HTTP response splitting in CGI

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-33621

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2021-33621: 1 source package rows (ruby); 7 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 7, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-33621
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-33621 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (ruby2.7, ruby3.1), 2 status rows across 2 suites (bookworm, bullseye): resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-33621
gentoo normal CVE-2021-33621: 1 GLSA(s) (202401-27), 1 atom(s) (dev-lang/ruby); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-33621
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-33621
suse high CVE-2021-33621 severity important: SUSE including 324 source package names (2.17-17.3:libruby2_5-2_5-2.5.9-150000.4.29.1, 2.17-17.3:ruby2.5-2.5.9-150000.4.29.1, …), 913 product×package rows across 190 product lines (Container bci/ruby, Container suse/rmt-server, … (190 product lines)): Fixed 645, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 37. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-33621/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-33621 medium priority: Ubuntu including 8 source packages (jruby, ruby1.9.1, …), 74 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 46, needs-triage 12, released 8, ignored 6, not-affected 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-33621

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-33621

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ruby-lang cgi < 0.1.0.2 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:cgi:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
ruby-lang cgi >= 0.2.0, < 0.2.2 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:cgi:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
ruby-lang cgi >= 0.3.0, < 0.3.5 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:cgi:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 35 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 36 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.7 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby >= 3.0.0, < 3.0.5 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ruby-lang ruby >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.3 cpe:2.3:a:ruby-lang:ruby:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-33621

cvelogic Threat Intelligence