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Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2021-29428 json

Local privilege escalation through system temporary directory

published 2021-04-13 5 y ago modified 2026-10-08 31 d ago also BIT-gradle-2021-29428 , EUVD-2021-16059 , GHSA-89qm-pxvm-p336

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 45%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In Gradle before version 7.0, on Unix-like systems, the system temporary directory can be created with open permissions that allow multiple users to create and delete files within it. Gradle builds could be vulnerable to a local privilege escalation from an attacker quickly deleting and recreating files in the system temporary directory. This vulnerability impacted builds using precompiled script plugins written in Kotlin DSL and tests for Gradle plugins written using ProjectBuilder or TestKit. If you are on Windows or modern versions of macOS, you are not vulnerable. If you are on a Unix-like operating system with the "sticky" bit set on your system temporary directory, you are not vulnerable. The problem has been patched and released with Gradle 7.0. As a workaround, on Unix-like operating systems, ensure that the "sticky" bit is set. This only allows the original user (or root) to delete a file. If you are unable to change the permissions of the system temporary directory, you can move the Java temporary directory by setting the System Property `java.io.tmpdir`. The new path needs to limit permissions to the build user only. For additional details refer to the referenced GitHub Security Advisory.

Patch / fix

  • bitnami gradle 7.0.0
  • gradle gradle 7.0
  • gradle SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES for SAP 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS +9 more 4.4.1-150200.3.7.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:1867-1

  • gradle-src Arch Linux 7.0-1
  • gradle Arch Linux 7.0-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1809

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-2021-29428 updated cvss 7.8

gradle: local privilege escalation through system temporary directory

  • Red Hat build of Quarkus gradle gradle
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Integration Camel K 1 gradle gradle
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 1 gradle gradle
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat build of Quarkus 2.7.5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:4623
  • Red Hat Fuse 7 gradle gradle Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7 gradle gradle Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Pack gradle gradle Red Hat streams for Apache Kafka gradle gradle
    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 SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
31 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.54% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 45% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/gradle/gradle/security/advisories/GHSA-89qm-pxvm-p336 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.4 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
OSV 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami gradle
<7.0.0
7.0.0

Affected products

  • gradle gradle

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-379 Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions
  • CWE-378 Creation of Temporary File With Insecure Permissions

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.