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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2021-37623 json

Denial of service due to infinite loop in JpegBase::printStructure (#2)

published 2021-08-09 5 y ago modified 2026-08-13 2 mo ago also EUVD-2021-24181 , JLSEC-2026-1313

cvss
5.5
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 64%
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. An infinite loop was found in Exiv2 versions v0.27.4 and earlier. The infinite loop is triggered when Exiv2 is used to modify the metadata of a crafted image file. An attacker could potentially exploit the vulnerability to cause a denial of service, if they can trick the victim into running Exiv2 on a crafted image file. Note that this bug is only triggered when deleting the IPTC data, which is a less frequently used Exiv2 operation that requires an extra command line option (`-d I rm`). The bug is fixed in version v0.27.5.

Patch / fix

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

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-37623

  • exiv2 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 0.27.2-8ubuntu2.6
  • exiv2 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 0.27.3-3ubuntu4

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-37623

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 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 0.27.5-5.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:12405-1

  • exiv2 Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +8 more 0.27.5-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2021-37623

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-7225

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 0.27.5-1

arch linux advisories AVG-2265

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-2021-37623 updated cvss 5.5

exiv2: DoS due to infinite loop in JpegBase::printStructure

  • 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 exiv2, exiv2-libs, compat-exiv2-026
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 exiv2, exiv2-libs
    affected: no fix available

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

1.05% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 64% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
OSV 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
julia Exiv2_jll
all versions
 no fix listed

Affected products

  • Exiv2 exiv2

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-835 Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition

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.