CVE-2021-38571

An issue was discovered in Foxit Reader and PhantomPDF before 10.1.4. It allows DLL hijacking, aka CNVD-C-2021-68000 and CNVD-C-2021-68502.

Published: 2021-08-11 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-38571 is rated Low Risk (33.2/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). Mandatory action: 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-2021-38571

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 2025-03-30 0.05% 0.03% -0.02%
2 2025-03-29 0.03% 0.05% +0.02%
3 2025-03-17 0.03%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-38571

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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: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: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.
1.8 5.9 [email protected]
4.4 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
3.4 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-38571

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-38571

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
foxitsoftware foxit_reader < 10.1.4 cpe:2.3:a:foxitsoftware:foxit_reader:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
foxitsoftware phantompdf < 9.7.5.29616 cpe:2.3:a:foxitsoftware:phantompdf:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
foxitsoftware phantompdf >= 10.0.0.0, < 10.1.4 cpe:2.3:a:foxitsoftware:phantompdf:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-38571

cvelogic Threat Intelligence