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CVE-2021-35939

23
FAUCET Score

CVE-2021-35939 is an incomplete fix vulnerability affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux and RPM packages, allowing a local unprivileged user to potentially gain root privileges by exploiting an ancestor directory. With a CVSS score of 6.7 (Medium), it has a low attack complexity and requires high privileges, posing a significant threat to data confidentiality, integrity, and system availability. There is currently no known active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding this vulnerability.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
< 4.18CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:rpm:rpm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

6.7MEDIUM

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
HIGH
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
0.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.48%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
38.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0048 is in the 90th percentile among its peer group of 3,720 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.0 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.1 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 (41)

github_advisorypatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 18858-16820Fixed in: 4.14.2-15
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: 18859-16823Fixed in: 4.18.0-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: CBL Mariner 2.0 ARMFixed in: 4.18.0-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: cm1 rpm 4.14.2-15 on CBL Mariner 1.0Fixed in: 4.14.2-15
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: cbl2 rpm 4.18.0-1 on CBL Mariner 2.0Fixed in: 4.18.0-1
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: CBL Mariner 2.0 x64Fixed in: 4.18.0-1
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13Fixed in: openshift4-wincw/windows-machine-config-operator-bundle:v8.1.2-13
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13Fixed in: openshift4-wincw/windows-machine-config-rhel9-operator:8.1.2-13
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:v4.15.0-37
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/mcg-core-rhel9:v4.15.0-68
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/mcg-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/mcg-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-39
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/ocs-client-console-rhel9:v4.15.0-58
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/ocs-client-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/ocs-client-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-13
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/ocs-metrics-exporter-rhel9:v4.15.0-81
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/ocs-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/ocs-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-79
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-cli-rhel9:v4.15.0-22
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-console-rhel9:v4.15.0-57
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-cosi-sidecar-rhel9:v4.15.0-6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-csi-addons-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-csi-addons-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-15
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-csi-addons-sidecar-rhel9:v4.15.0-15
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-multicluster-console-rhel9:v4.15.0-54
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-multicluster-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-multicluster-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-10
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-must-gather-rhel9:v4.15.0-26
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odf-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-19
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odr-cluster-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odr-hub-operator-bundle:v4.15.0-158
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/rook-ceph-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-103
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9Fixed in: odf4/odr-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-21
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8Fixed in: rpm-0:4.14.3-28.el8_9
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Extended Update SupportFixed in: rpm-0:4.14.3-26.el8_6
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update SupportFixed in: rpm-0:4.14.3-28.el8_8
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9Fixed in: rpm-0:4.16.1.3-27.el9_3
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Extended Update SupportFixed in: rpm-0:4.16.1.3-14.el9_0.1
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Extended Update SupportFixed in: rpm-0:4.16.1.3-24.el9_2
View patch

Vendor Advisories (3)

microsoft2022-Sep/CVE-2021-35939

CVE-2021-35939

Sep 13, 2022
microsoft2022-Aug/CVE-2021-35939Moderate

It was found that the fix for CVE-2017-7500 and CVE-2017-7501 was incomplete: the check was only implemented for the parent directory of the file to be created. A local unprivileged user who owns another ancestor directory could potentially use this flaw to gain root privileges. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.

Aug 9, 2022
redhatCVE-2021-35939Moderate

rpm: checks for unsafe symlinks are not performed for intermediary directories

Jun 30, 2021

References

access.redhat.com / security/cve/CVE-2021-35939
Third Party Advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com / show_bug.cgi
ExploitIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
github.com / rpm-software-management/rpm/commit/96ec957e281220f8e137a2d5eb23b83a6377d556
PatchThird Party Advisory
github.com / rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/1919
PatchThird Party Advisory
rpm.org / wiki/Releases/4.18.0
Release NotesVendor Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/202210-22
Third Party Advisory