Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 8.1

CVE-2021-21422 json

XSS Vulnerability in mongo-express

published 2021-06-21 5 y ago modified 2026-07-08 4 mo ago also GHSA-7p8h-86p5-wv3p , EUVD-2021-1282

cvss
8.1
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.6%
EPSS 1.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

mongo-express is a web-based MongoDB admin interface, written with Node.js and express. 1: As mentioned in this issue: https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/issues/577, when the content of a cell grows larger than supported size, clicking on a row will show full document unescaped, however this needs admin interaction on cell. 2: Data cells identified as media will be rendered as media, without being sanitized. Example of different renders: image, audio, video, etc. As an example of type 1 attack, an unauthorized user who only can send a large amount of data in a field of a document may use a payload with embedded javascript. This could send an export of a collection to the attacker without even an admin knowing. Other types of attacks such as dropping a database\collection are possible.

Patch / fix

  • npm mongo-express 1.0.0-alpha.4

Exploit prediction

1.57% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/security/advisories/GHSA-7p8h-86p5-wv3p referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/issues/577 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.1 6.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
GitHub 3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm mongo-express
<1.0.0-alpha.4
1.0.0-alpha.4

Affected products

  • mongo-express mongo-express

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.