CVE-2021-44038

Exp

An issue was discovered in Quagga through 1.2.4. Unsafe chown/chmod operations in the suggested spec file allow users (with control of the non-root-owned directory /etc/quagga) to escalate their privileges to root upon package installation or update.

Published: 2021-11-19 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-44038 is rated High Exploit Risk (64.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.76%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2021-44038

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-44038

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 0.19% 0.76% +0.57%
2 2025-11-21 0.08% 0.19% +0.11%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.08% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-44038

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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: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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-44038

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-44038

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2021-44038: 1 source package rows (quagga); 23 state rows across 10 repos (3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, 3.23-main, edge-main); fixed 21, open 2. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2021-44038
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-44038
ubuntu low CVE-2021-44038 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (quagga), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 8, deferred 3, ignored 3, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-44038

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-44038

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
quagga quagga <= 1.2.4 cpe:2.3:a:quagga:quagga:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-44038

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1191890 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/Quagga/quagga/releases Release Notes Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence