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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2021-46790 json

ntfsck in NTFS-3G through 2021.8.22 has a heap-based buffer overflow involving buffer+512*3-2.

published 2022-05-02 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-33446

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 43%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

ntfsck in NTFS-3G through 2021.8.22 has a heap-based buffer overflow involving buffer+512*3-2. NOTE: the upstream position is that ntfsck is deprecated; however, it is shipped by some Linux distributions.

Patch / fix

  • ntfs-3g Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:2022.5.17-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46790

  • ntfs-3g Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1:2017.3.23-2ubuntu0.18.04.4
  • ntfs-3g Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1:2017.3.23AR.3-3ubuntu1.2
  • ntfs-3g Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1:2021.8.22-3ubuntu1.1
  • ntfs-3g Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 1:2013.1.13AR.1-2ubuntu2+esm2
  • ntfs-3g Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 1:2015.3.14AR.1-1ubuntu0.3+esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46790

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

  • SLOF RHEL 8 20210217-1.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2
  • hivex RHEL 8 1.3.18-23.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2
  • netcf RHEL 8 0.2.8-12.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2
  • swtpm RHEL 8 0.7.0-4.20211109gitb79fd91.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2
  • libnbd RHEL 8 1.6.0-5.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2
  • nbdkit RHEL 8 1.24.0-5.module+el8.8.0+17308+05924798
  • libtpms RHEL 8 0.9.1-2.20211126git1ff6fe1f43.module+el8.8.0+18453+e0bf0d1d
  • libvirt RHEL 8 8.0.0-19.module+el8.8.0+18453+e0bf0d1d

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:2757RHSA-2023:2179

  • ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP5, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 2022.5.17-5.12.1
  • ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP4, SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP3, openSUSE Leap 15.4 +1 more 2022.5.17-150000.3.11.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:2836-1SUSE-SU-2022:2835-1

  • ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs openSUSE Tumbleweed 2022.5.17-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:12115-1

  • SLOF AlmaLinux 8 20210217-1.module_el8.6.0+2880+7d9e3703
  • hivex AlmaLinux 8 1.3.18-23.module_el8.6.0+2880+7d9e3703
  • hivex AlmaLinux 8 1.3.18-23.module_el8.6.0+3161+a07c0ea5
  • netcf AlmaLinux 8 0.2.8-12.module_el8.6.0+2880+7d9e3703
  • netcf AlmaLinux 8 0.2.8-12.module_el8.6.0+3161+a07c0ea5
  • swtpm AlmaLinux 8 0.7.0-4.20211109gitb79fd91.module_el8.7.0+3346+68867adb
  • libnbd AlmaLinux 8 1.6.0-5.module_el8.6.0+2880+7d9e3703
  • libnbd AlmaLinux 8 1.6.0-5.module_el8.6.0+3161+a07c0ea5

almalinux advisories ALSA-2023:2757ALSA-2023:2179

  • hivex Rocky Linux 8 1.3.18-23.module+el8.10.0+1835+43f01cbb
  • hivex Rocky Linux 8 1.3.18-23.module+el8.10.0+1590+a67ab969
  • netcf Rocky Linux 8 0.2.8-12.module+el8.10.0+1590+a67ab969
  • netcf Rocky Linux 8 0.2.8-12.module+el8.10.0+1835+43f01cbb
  • swtpm Rocky Linux 8 0.7.0-4.20211109gitb79fd91.module+el8.10.0+1835+43f01cbb
  • swtpm Rocky Linux 8 0.7.0-4.20211109gitb79fd91.module+el8.10.0+1590+a67ab969
  • libnbd Rocky Linux 8 1.6.0-5.module+el8.10.0+1835+43f01cbb
  • libnbd Rocky Linux 8 1.6.0-5.module+el8.10.0+1590+a67ab969

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2023:2757

  • ntfs-3g Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +6 more 2022.5.17-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2021-46790

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

  • ntfs-3g CBL-Mariner 2.0 2022.5.17-1

azure linux advisories AZL-9597

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

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-2021-46790 updated cvss 7.8

ntfs-3g: heap-based buffer overflow in ntfsck

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 libguestfs-winsupport
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Advanced Virtualization libguestfs-winsupport
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) libnbd 1.6.0-5.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, netcf 0.2.8-12.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, nbdfuse 1.6.0-5.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, nbdkit 1.24.0-5.module+el8.8.0+17308+05924798, libvirt 8.0.0-19.module+el8.8.0+18453+e0bf0d1d, seabios 1.16.0-3.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, +102 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:2757
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) libguestfs-winsupport 9.2-1.el9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:2179
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) libnbd 1.6.0-5.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, netcf 0.2.8-12.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, nbdfuse 1.6.0-5.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, libvirt 8.0.0-19.module+el8.8.0+18453+e0bf0d1d, seabios 1.16.0-3.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, libiscsi 1.18.0-8.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, +36 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:2757
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) hivex 1.3.18-23.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, SLOF 20210217-1.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) hivex 1.3.18-23.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2, SLOF 20210217-1.module+el8.8.0+16781+9f4724c2
    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

0.50% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 43% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/issues/16 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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

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.