CVE-2021-3982

Linux distributions using CAP_SYS_NICE for gnome-shell may be exposed to a privilege escalation issue. An attacker, with low privilege permissions, may take advantage of the way CAP_SYS_NICE is currently implemented and eventually load code to increase its process scheduler priority leading to possible DoS of other services running in the same machine.

Published: 2022-04-29 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-3982 is rated Low Risk (24.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). 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-2021-3982

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 2025-05-12 0.06% 0.03% -0.03%
2 2025-05-03 0.04% 0.06% +0.02%
3 2023-03-07 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-3982

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:L/UI:N/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
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.
 3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-3982

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-3982

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2021-3982 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (gnome-shell), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-3982
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3982
suse medium CVE-2021-3982 severity moderate: SUSE including 5 source package names (gnome-shell, gnome-shell-browser-plugin, gnome-shell-calendar, gnome-shell-devel, gnome-shell-lang), 84 product×package rows across 33 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, … (33 product lines)): Known Not Affected 84. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-3982/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-3982 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (gnome-shell), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 12, ignored 1, needed 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-3982

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-3982

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnome gnome-shell — cpe:2.3:a:gnome:gnome-shell:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-3982

URL Tags
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/2284 Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/2060 Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
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