CVE-2021-38380

Exp

Live555 through 1.08 mishandles huge requests for the same MP3 stream, leading to recursion and s stack-based buffer over-read. An attacker can leverage this to launch a DoS attack.

Published: 2021-08-10 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-38380 is rated High Exploit Risk (71.2/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.53%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.26% 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-2021-38380

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-38380

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 0.28% 1.53% +1.26%
2 2025-11-21 0.51% 0.28% -0.23%
3 2025-11-18 0.51%

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-38380

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
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-2021-38380

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-38380

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2021-38380: 1 source package rows (live-media); 7 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 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-38380
gentoo normal CVE-2021-38380: 1 GLSA(s) (202407-23), 1 atom(s) (media-plugins/live); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-38380
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-38380 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (liblivemedia), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 11, needs-triage 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-38380

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-38380

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
live555 live555 < 2021.08.04 cpe:2.3:a:live555:live555:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-38380

cvelogic Threat Intelligence