CVE-2021-36980

Open vSwitch (aka openvswitch) 2.11.0 through 2.15.0 has a use-after-free in decode_NXAST_RAW_ENCAP (called from ofpact_decode and ofpacts_decode) during the decoding of a RAW_ENCAP action.

Published: 2021-07-20 Last update: 2025-05-05 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-36980 is rated Low Risk (32/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.10%). 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-2021-36980

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 2025-11-21 0.24% 0.10% -0.14%
2 2025-11-18 0.11% 0.24% +0.13%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.11% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-36980

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]
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 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
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-2021-36980

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-36980

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2021-36980: 1 source package rows (openvswitch); 16 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 6. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-36980
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-36980 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (openvswitch), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-36980
gentoo low CVE-2021-36980: 1 GLSA(s) (202311-16), 1 atom(s) (net-misc/openvswitch); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-36980
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-36980
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-36980/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-36980 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (openvswitch), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 4, released 2, DNE 1, ignored 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-36980

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-36980

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
openvswitch openvswitch >= 2.11.0, <= 2.15.0 cpe:2.3:a:openvswitch:openvswitch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-36980

URL Tags
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/oss-fuzz/issues/detail?id=27851 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz-vulns/blob/main/vulns/openvswitch/OSV-2020-2197.yaml Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/commit/38744b1bcb022c611712527f039722115300f58f Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/commit/65c61b0c23a0d474696d7b1cea522a5016a8aeb3 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/commit/6d67310f4d2524b466b98f05ebccc1add1e8cf35 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/commit/77cccc74deede443e8b9102299efc869a52b65b2 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/commit/8ce8dc34b5f73b30ce0c1869af9947013c3c6575 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/commit/9926637a80d0d243dbf9c49761046895e9d1a8e2 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202311-16
cvelogic Threat Intelligence