CVE-2021-35938

Exp

A symbolic link issue was found in rpm. It occurs when rpm sets the desired permissions and credentials after installing a file. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to exchange the original file with a symbolic link to a security-critical file and escalate their privileges on the system. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.

Published: 2022-08-25 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-35938 is rated Exploit Available (54/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.15%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2021-35938

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-35938

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 2026-05-11 0.15% 0.15% -0.00%
2 2026-04-21 0.15% 0.15% +0.00%
3 2026-04-06 — 0.15% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-35938

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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.
 0.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-35938

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-35938

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2021-35938: 1 source package rows (rpm); 14 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 7, open 7. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-35938
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-35938 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (rpm), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-35938
gentoo high CVE-2021-35938: 1 GLSA(s) (202210-22), 1 atom(s) (app-arch/rpm); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-35938
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-35938
suse medium CVE-2021-35938 severity moderate: SUSE including 284 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, …), 350 product×package rows across 40 product lines (SUSE Enterprise Storage 7, SUSE Liberty Linux 8, … (40 product lines)): Known Affected 231, Will Not Fix 74, Fixed 45. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-35938/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-35938 medium 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): ignored 8, needs-triage 8. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-35938

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-35938

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
rpm rpm < 4.18.0 cpe:2.3:a:rpm:rpm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 34 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-35938

cvelogic Threat Intelligence