CVE-2021-42373

A NULL pointer dereference in Busybox's man applet leads to denial of service when a section name is supplied but no page argument is given

Published: 2021-11-15 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-42373 is rated Low Risk (32.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.38%). 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-2021-42373

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 0.05% 0.38% +0.33%
2 2025-04-24 0.05% 0.05% +0.00%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-42373

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-2021-42373

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-42373

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2021-42373: 1 source package rows (busybox); 5 state rows across 5 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 5, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-42373
debian unimportant CVE-2021-42373 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (busybox), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-42373
gentoo normal CVE-2021-42373: 1 GLSA(s) (202407-17), 1 atom(s) (sys-apps/busybox); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2021-42373
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-42373
suse medium CVE-2021-42373 severity moderate: SUSE including 24 source package names (1.34.1:busybox-1.34.1-4.9.1, 15.4:busybox-1.35.0-150400.3.3.1, …), 84 product×package rows across 52 product lines (Container bci/bci-busybox, Container caasp/v4/busybox, … (52 product lines)): Fixed 77, Known Not Affected 7. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-42373/
ubuntu low CVE-2021-42373 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (busybox), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-42373

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-42373

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
busybox busybox 1.33.0 cpe:2.3:a:busybox:busybox:1.33.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
busybox busybox 1.33.1 cpe:2.3:a:busybox:busybox:1.33.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 34 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp cloud_backup — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:cloud_backup:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp hci_management_node — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:hci_management_node:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp solidfire — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:solidfire:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h300s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h300s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h500s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h500s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h700s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h700s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h300e_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h300e_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h500e_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h500e_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h700e_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h700e_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h410s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h410s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-42373

cvelogic Threat Intelligence