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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2021-29457 json

Heap buffer overflow in Exiv2::Jp2Image::doWriteMetadata

published 2021-04-19 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-16070

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.2%
EPSS 2.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 82%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Exiv2 is a command-line utility and C++ library for reading, writing, deleting, and modifying the metadata of image files. A heap buffer overflow was found in Exiv2 versions v0.27.3 and earlier. The heap overflow is triggered when Exiv2 is used to write metadata into a crafted image file. An attacker could potentially exploit the vulnerability to gain code execution, if they can trick the victim into running Exiv2 on a crafted image file. Note that this bug is only triggered when _writing_ the metadata, which is a less frequently used Exiv2 operation than _reading_ the metadata. For example, to trigger the bug in the Exiv2 command-line application, you need to add an extra command-line argument such as `insert`. The bug is fixed in version v0.27.4.

Patch / fix

  • exiv2 exiv2 0.27.4
  • exiv2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.27.3-3.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-29457

  • exiv2 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 0.25-3.1ubuntu0.18.04.7
  • exiv2 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 0.27.2-8ubuntu2.2
  • exiv2 Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 0.25-2.1ubuntu16.04.7+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-29457

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

  • exiv2 RHEL 8 0.27.4-5.el8
  • exiv2-libs RHEL 8 0.27.4-5.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:4173

  • exiv2 SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP5 +6 more 0.23-12.18.1
  • exiv2 SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.4 0.27.5-150400.15.4.1
  • exiv2-0_26 SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP4, openSUSE Leap 15.4 0.26-150400.9.16.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:4252-1SUSE-SU-2022:3889-1

  • exiv2 openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.27.5-3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:12381-1

  • exiv2 AlmaLinux 8 0.27.4-5.el8
  • exiv2-libs AlmaLinux 8 0.27.4-5.el8

almalinux advisories ALSA-2021:4173

  • exiv2 Rocky Linux 8 0.27.4-5.el8

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2021:4173

  • exiv2 Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +9 more 0.27.3-r1

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2021-29457

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

  • exiv2 CBL-Mariner 2.0 0.27.5-1

azure linux advisories AZL-7206

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

  • exiv2 Arch Linux 0.27.4-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1772

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-2021-29457 updated cvss 7.8

exiv2: Heap-based buffer overflow in Exiv2::Jp2Image::doWriteMetadata

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 exiv2, exiv2-libs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 exiv2, exiv2-libs
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) exiv2-doc 0.27.4-5.el8, exiv2-devel 0.27.4-5.el8, exiv2-debuginfo 0.27.4-5.el8, exiv2-debugsource 0.27.4-5.el8, exiv2-libs-debuginfo 0.27.4-5.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) exiv2 0.27.4-5.el8, exiv2-libs 0.27.4-5.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:4173
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 exiv2, exiv2-libs
    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

Exploit prediction

2.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 82% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/issues/1529 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
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

  • Exiv2 exiv2

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-122 Heap-based Buffer Overflow

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.