Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
low 3.6

CVE-2021-29623 json

Uninitialized variable bug in Exiv2

published 2021-05-13 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-16101

cvss
3.6
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.1%
EPSS 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 65%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Exiv2 is a C++ library and a command-line utility to read, write, delete and modify Exif, IPTC, XMP and ICC image metadata. A read of uninitialized memory was found in Exiv2 versions v0.27.3 and earlier. Exiv2 is a command-line utility and C++ library for reading, writing, deleting, and modifying the metadata of image files. The read of uninitialized memory is triggered when Exiv2 is used to read the metadata of a crafted image file. An attacker could potentially exploit the vulnerability to leak a few bytes of stack memory, if they can trick the victim into running Exiv2 on a crafted image file. The bug is fixed in version v0.27.4.

Patch / fix

  • exiv2 exiv2 0.27.4
  • exiv2 Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.27.5-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-29623

  • exiv2 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 0.27.2-8ubuntu2.4

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-29623

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 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-2022:3889-1

  • exiv2 openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.27.5-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:12063-1

  • 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-r2

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2021-29623

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-7212

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-2021-29623 updated cvss 4.0

exiv2: Use of uninitialized memory in isWebPType() may lead to information leak

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 exiv2, exiv2-libs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 exiv2, exiv2-libs, compat-exiv2-023, compat-exiv2-026
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 compat-exiv2-026
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) exiv2 0.27.4-5.el8, exiv2-libs 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

1.10% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 65% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 3.6 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD 3.1 3.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Exiv2 exiv2

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-908 Use of Uninitialized Resource

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.