CVE-2021-42096

GNU Mailman before 2.1.35 may allow remote Privilege Escalation. A certain csrf_token value is derived from the admin password, and may be useful in conducting a brute-force attack against that password.

Published: 2021-10-20 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-42096 is rated Moderate Risk (40.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.21%). 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-2021-42096

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 0.26% 1.21% +0.95%
2 2025-11-18 0.40% 0.26% -0.15%
3 2025-06-02 — 0.40% —

Full EPSS history (17 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-42096

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 1.4 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N 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:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-42096

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-42096

vendor priority summary link
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-42096
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-42096/
ubuntu high CVE-2021-42096 high priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (mailman), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bionic, focal, upstream, xenial): released 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-42096

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-42096

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu mailman < 2.1.35 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:mailman:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-42096

cvelogic Threat Intelligence