CVE-2021-41268 | Cookie persistence in Symfony

Symfony/SecurityBundle is the security system for Symfony, a PHP framework for web and console applications and a set of reusable PHP components. Since the rework of the Remember me cookie in version 5.3.0, the cookie is not invalidated when the user changes their password. Attackers can therefore maintain their access to the account even if the password is changed as long as they have had the chance to login once and get a valid remember me cookie. Starting with version 5.3.12, Symfony makes the password part of the signature by default. In that way, when the password changes, then the cookie is not valid anymore.

Published: 2021-11-24 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-41268 is rated Moderate Risk (48.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.48%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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-2021-41268

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 0.41% 0.48% +0.07%
2 2025-11-18 0.45% 0.41% -0.04%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.45% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-41268

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N 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: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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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: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: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.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.5 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/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:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.0 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-41268

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-41268

GHSA-qw36-p97w-vcqr · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: composer — Cookie persistence after password changes in symfony/security-bundle

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-41268

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2021-41268 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (symfony), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-41268
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-41268 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (symfony), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 6, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-41268

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-41268

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
sensiolabs symfony >= 5.3.0, < 5.3.12 cpe:2.3:a:sensiolabs:symfony:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-41268

cvelogic Threat Intelligence