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CVE-2021-28543

24
FAUCET Score

CVE-2021-28543 describes a denial-of-service vulnerability in Varnish varnish-modules before version 0.17.1, affecting configurations where both Varnish Cache and varnish-modules are installed. Remote attackers can trigger a daemon restart through specific header manipulation functions (header.append() and header.copy()) in Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) files. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH), indicating a network-based attack with low complexity and high impact on availability. There is currently no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion surrounding this CVE.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
< 0.17.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:varnish-cache:varnish-modules:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
< 0.17.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:varnish-cache:varnish-modules_klarlack:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
34CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

4.0MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
NONE
Availability Impact
LOW
Exploitability Score
2.2
Impact Score
1.4
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
1.49%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
71.5%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0149 is in the 53rd percentile among its peer group of 51,506 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (2)

microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 19643-16823
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: cbl2 varnish-modules on CBL Mariner 2.0

Vendor Advisories (2)

redhatCVE-2021-28543Low

varnish-modules: NULL pointer dereference in Varnish Cache via header.append() and header.copy() functions

Mar 16, 2021
microsoft2021-Mar/CVE-2021-28543Important

Varnish varnish-modules before 0.17.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon restart) in some configurations. This does not affect organizations that only install the Varnish Cache product; however, it is common to install both Varnish Cache and varnish-modules. Specifically, an assertion failure or NULL pointer dereference can be triggered in Varnish Cache through the varnish-modules header.append() and header.copy() functions. For some Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) files, this gives remote clients an opportunity to cause a Varnish Cache restart. A restart reduces overall availability and performance due to an increased number of cache misses, and may cause higher load on backend servers.

Mar 9, 2021

References

lists.fedoraproject.org / archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OPFBRQUJNWHCB3GQHSSAPRLQU6Q6PY43
varnish-cache.org / security/VSV00006.html
Vendor Advisory