CVE-2021-3421

A flaw was found in the RPM package in the read functionality. This flaw allows an attacker who can convince a victim to install a seemingly verifiable package or compromise an RPM repository, to cause RPM database corruption. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data integrity. This flaw affects RPM versions before 4.17.0-alpha.

Published: 2021-05-19 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-3421 is rated Low Risk (35.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.18%). 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-2021-3421

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 2026-04-04 0.04% 0.18% +0.13%
2 2025-11-21 0.12% 0.04% -0.08%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.12% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-3421

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:H/A:N 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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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: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:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-3421

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-3421

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2021-3421: 1 source package rows (rpm); 10 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 10, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-3421
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-3421 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (rpm), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-3421
gentoo normal CVE-2021-3421: 1 GLSA(s) (202107-43), 1 atom(s) (app-arch/rpm); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-3421
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3421
suse medium CVE-2021-3421 severity moderate: SUSE including 403 source package names (0.21.0.3.2.10:rpm-ndb-4.14.3-37.2, 0.7.1-rev1.0.0-build2.2.1:python3-rpm-4.14.3-37.2, …), 637 product×package rows across 183 product lines (Container bci/bci-init, Container bci/bci-minimal, … (183 product lines)): Fixed 397, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 9. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3421/
ubuntu low CVE-2021-3421 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (rpm), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 8, released 4, ignored 3, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-3421

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-3421

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rpm rpm < 4.16.1.3 cpe:2.3:a:rpm:rpm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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-2021-3421

cvelogic Threat Intelligence