Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-21238


PySAML2 is a pure python implementation of SAML Version 2 Standard. PySAML2 before 6.5.0 has an improper verification of cryptographic signature vulnerability. All users of pysaml2 that need to validate signed SAML documents are impacted. The vulnerability is a variant of XML Signature wrapping because it did not validate the SAML document against an XML schema. This allowed invalid XML documents to be processed and such a document can trick pysaml2 with a wrapped signature. This is fixed in PySAML2 6.5.0.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 6.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts integrity (unauthorized modifications), for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from pysaml2_project organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2021, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2021-01-21T15:15:14.110

Last Modified

2026-06-17T03:35:06.173

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: NONE
  • Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
  • Availability Impact: NONE
Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-347

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application pysaml2_project pysaml2 < 6.5.0 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For pysaml2_project's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.