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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.8

CVE-2021-22204 kev in the critical feed json

Improper neutralization of user data in the DjVu file format in ExifTool versions 7.44 and up allows arbitrary code execution when parsing…

published 2021-04-23 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-9350

cvss
6.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2021-11-17
epss
100.0%
EPSS 100.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.9%
public exploits
3
Metasploit, Exploit-DB

Summary

Improper neutralization of user data in the DjVu file format in ExifTool versions 7.44 and up allows arbitrary code execution when parsing the malicious image

Patch / fix

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

  • exiftool_project exiftool 12.24
  • libimage-exiftool-perl Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 12.16+dfsg-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-22204

  • libimage-exiftool-perl Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 10.80-1ubuntu0.1
  • libimage-exiftool-perl Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 11.88-1ubuntu0.1
  • libimage-exiftool-perl Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 10.10-1ubuntu0.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-22204

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • perl-Image-ExifTool Package Hub 15 SP2, Package Hub 15 SP1, openSUSE Leap 15.2 12.25-bp152.4.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:0707-1

  • perl-image-exiftool Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +9 more 12.24-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2021-22204

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • perl-image-exiftool Arch Linux 12.25-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1869

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-22204 updated cvss 6.8

perl-Image-ExifTool: improper neutralization of user data in the DjVu file format allows arbitrary code execution when parsing a malicious image

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/multi/http/gitlab_exif_rce)
  2. Published
  3. Added to CISA KEV
  4. CISA patch deadline
  5. CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Known exploited

Added
4 y ago
Patch by
2021-12-01 (4 y ago)
Ransomware
Not known
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vendor, product
Perl, Exiftool
CISA name
ExifTool Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ATT&CK techniques

How it is exploited and what it leads to, in MITRE ATT&CK terms.

  • T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application exploitation
  • T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter primary impact

kev release 2025-07-28, att&ck v16.1. KEV to ATT&CK mappings by the MITRE Center for Threat-Informed Defense (Mappings Explorer, Apache-2.0). © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. Terms of use

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
21 mo ago

Exploit prediction

99.98% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • ExifTool ExifTool

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code

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.