CVE-2021-38604

Exp

In librt in the GNU C Library (aka glibc) through 2.34, sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/mq_notify.c mishandles certain NOTIFY_REMOVED data, leading to a NULL pointer dereference. NOTE: this vulnerability was introduced as a side effect of the CVE-2021-33574 fix.

Published: 2021-08-12 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-38604 is rated High Exploit Risk (78/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.04%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.94% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2021-38604

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-38604

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 0.10% 3.04% +2.94%
2 2025-11-21 1.43% 0.10% -1.32%
3 2025-11-18 — 1.43% —

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-38604

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]
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 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
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-2021-38604

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-38604

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2021-38604 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (glibc), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-38604
gentoo normal CVE-2021-38604: 1 GLSA(s) (202208-24), 1 atom(s) (sys-libs/glibc); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-38604
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-38604
suse medium CVE-2021-38604 severity moderate: SUSE including 21 source package names (glibc, glibc-32bit, …), 334 product×package rows across 44 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (44 product lines)): Known Not Affected 334. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-38604/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-38604 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (eglibc, glibc), 16 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 7, not-affected 6, ignored 1, needs-triage 1, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-38604

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-38604

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu glibc <= 2.34 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:glibc:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 35 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_binding_support_function 22.1.3 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_binding_support_function:22.1.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_network_function_cloud_native_environment 22.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_network_function_cloud_native_environment:22.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_network_repository_function 22.1.2 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_network_repository_function:22.1.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_network_repository_function 22.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_network_repository_function:22.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_security_edge_protection_proxy 22.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_security_edge_protection_proxy:22.1.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_unified_data_repository 22.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_unified_data_repository:22.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle enterprise_operations_monitor 4.3 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:enterprise_operations_monitor:4.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle enterprise_operations_monitor 4.4 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:enterprise_operations_monitor:4.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle enterprise_operations_monitor 5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:enterprise_operations_monitor:5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-38604

cvelogic Threat Intelligence