Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-45960


In Expat (aka libexpat) before 2.4.3, a left shift by 29 (or more) places in the storeAtts function in xmlparse.c can lead to realloc misbehavior (e.g., allocating too few bytes, or only freeing memory).


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 8.8, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 8 products from libexpat_project, from tenable, from debian and 5 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2022, 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

2022-01-01T19:15:08.030

Last Modified

2025-05-05T17:17:28.457

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 8.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: LOW
  • Authentication: SINGLE
  • Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
  • Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
  • Availability Impact: COMPLETE
Exploitability Score

8.0

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-682
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-682

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application libexpat_project libexpat < 2.4.3 Yes
Application tenable nessus < 8.15.3 Yes
Application tenable nessus < 10.1.1 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 10.0 Yes
Operating System debian debian_linux 11.0 Yes
Application siemens sinema_remote_connect_server < 3.1 Yes
Application netapp active_iq_unified_manager - Yes
Application netapp hci_baseboard_management_controller h610c Yes
Application netapp hci_baseboard_management_controller h610s Yes
Application netapp hci_baseboard_management_controller h615c Yes
Application netapp oncommand_workflow_automation - Yes
Application netapp solidfire_\&_hci_management_node - 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 libexpat_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.