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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.3

CVE-2021-22923 json

When curl is instructed to get content using the metalink feature, and a user name and password are used to download the metalink XML file,…

published 2021-08-05 5 y ago modified 2026-10-14 26 d ago also EUVD-2021-10052 , JLSEC-2026-1336

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

When curl is instructed to get content using the metalink feature, and a user name and password are used to download the metalink XML file, those same credentials are then subsequently passed on to each of the servers from which curl will download or try to download the contents from. Often contrary to the user's expectations and intentions and without telling the user it happened.

Patch / fix

  • julia LibCURL_jll 7.81.0+0
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP V3.1.5
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP V3.1.5
  • Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP V3.1.5
  • curl Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 7.79.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-22923

  • curl RHEL 8 7.61.1-18.el8_4.1
  • libcurl RHEL 8 7.61.1-18.el8_4.1
  • libcurl-minimal RHEL 8 7.61.1-18.el8_4.1
  • curl RHEL 8.2 EUS 7.61.1-12.el8_2.3
  • libcurl RHEL 8.2 EUS 7.61.1-12.el8_2.3
  • libcurl-minimal RHEL 8.2 EUS 7.61.1-12.el8_2.3

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:3903RHSA-2021:3582

  • curl SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 7.60.0-11.23.1
  • curl SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES for SAP 15, SLES 15-LTSS +10 more 7.60.0-3.47.1
  • curl SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP2, SLE Micro 5.0 7.66.0-4.22.1
  • curl-openssl1 SLES 11-SECURITY 7.37.0-70.71.1
  • curl SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4-LTSS, OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 +1 more 7.60.0-4.25.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:2462-1SUSE-SU-2021:2440-1SUSE-SU-2021:2439-1SUSE-SU-2021:14768-1SUSE-SU-2021:2425-1

  • curl openSUSE Leap 15.2 7.66.0-lp152.3.21.1
  • curl-mini openSUSE Leap 15.2 7.66.0-lp152.3.21.1
  • curl openSUSE Leap 15.3 7.66.0-4.22.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:1088-1openSUSE-SU-2021:2439-1

  • curl Rocky Linux 8 7.61.1-18.el8_4.1

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2021:3582

  • curl Alpine 3.11 7.79.0-r0
  • curl Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +10 more 7.78.0-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2021-22923

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

  • curl CBL-Mariner 2.0 7.76.0-5

azure linux advisories AZL-6362

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

  • curl Arch Linux 7.78.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-2194

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-2021-22923 updated cvss 5.7

curl: Metalink download sends credentials

  • Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 curl, libcurl
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “This flaw can be mitigated by upgrading the affected curl utility to version 7.78.0 or by disabling the metalink feature in your current build”
  • Red Hat JBoss Core Services jbcs-httpd24-curl jbcs-httpd24-curl
    affected: workaround, no fix available “This flaw can be mitigated by upgrading the affected curl utility to version 7.78.0 or by disabling the metalink feature in your current build”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) curl 7.61.1-18.el8_4.1, libcurl 7.61.1-18.el8_4.1, libcurl-minimal 7.61.1-18.el8_4.1
    fixed: vendor fix “This flaw can be mitigated by upgrading the affected curl utility to version 7.78.0 or by disabling the metalink feature in your current build” RHSA-2021:3582
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v. 8.2) curl 7.61.1-12.el8_2.3, libcurl 7.61.1-12.el8_2.3, libcurl-minimal 7.61.1-12.el8_2.3
    fixed: vendor fix “This flaw can be mitigated by upgrading the affected curl utility to version 7.78.0 or by disabling the metalink feature in your current build” RHSA-2021:3903
  • Red Hat .NET Core 2.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux rh-dotnet21-curl, rh-dotnet21-libcurl Red Hat .NET Core 3.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux rh-dotnet31-curl, rh-dotnet31-libcurl Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 curl, libcurl Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 curl, libcurl Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 curl, libcurl, curl-minimal, libcurl-minimal Red Hat Software Collections httpd24-curl, httpd24-libcurl
    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

cisa ICSA-23-348-10 updated cvss 5.3

Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500

  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4AX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AB0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP (6ES7518-4FX00-1AC0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5 Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP (6AG1518-4AX00-4AC0) >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.5
    affected: fixed in V3.1.5, mitigation support.industry.siemens.com

Facts from CISA's republication of the vendor's own advisory (CSAF); the linked advisory is the authoritative source. CISA notification · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
23 mo ago

Exploit prediction

2.00% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 80% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • hackerone.com https://hackerone.com/reports/1213181 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.6 AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
OSV 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
julia LibCURL_jll
<7.81.0+0
7.81.0+0

Affected products

  • n/a https://github.com/curl/curl
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP
  • Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP
  • Siemens SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-319 Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
  • CWE-522 Insufficiently Protected Credentials
Technology feeds

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.