NVD / CVE Program· CNA redhat

CVE-2021-3479: There's a flaw in OpenEXR's Scanline API functionality in versions before 3.0.0-beta.

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 22/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.96% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 61.5% of all records.
Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. No account or password is required. A user must open a link or visit a page. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
Fixed version: openexr (Debian:10) 2.2.1-4.1+deb10u2; openexr (Debian:12) 2.5.4-1; openexr (Debian:9) 2.2.0-11+deb9u3.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to openexr (Debian:10) 2.2.1-4.1+deb10u2; openexr (Debian:12) 2.5.4-1; openexr (Debian:9) 2.2.0-11+deb9u3 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

There's a flaw in OpenEXR's Scanline API functionality in versions before 3.0.0-beta. An attacker who is able to submit a crafted file to be processed by OpenEXR could trigger excessive consumption of memory, resulting in an impact to system availability.

MediumCVSS 5.5 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Denial of service

Published: Mar 31, 2021
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 0.9% · 61th percentile
CWE: CWE-400

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 22 / 40 · 5.5 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.9%

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
openexr	openexr	cpe:2.3:a:openexr:openexr
debian	debian linux	cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

debian debian linux10.0
debian debian linux9.0
openexr openexrbefore 2.4.3
openexr openexr2.5.0 and later · before 2.5.4

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (redhat). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

n/a OpenEXR
- OpenEXR 3.0.0-betaaffected

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
Debian:10	openexr	before 2.2.1-4.1+deb10u2	2.2.1-4.1+deb10u2
Debian:12	openexr	before 2.5.4-1	2.5.4-1
Debian:9	openexr	before 2.2.0-11+deb9u3	2.2.0-11+deb9u3
openSUSE:Leap 15.2	openexr	before 2.2.1-lp152.7.14.1	2.2.1-lp152.7.14.1
SUSE:HPE Helion OpenStack 8	openexr	before 2.1.0-6.34.1	2.1.0-6.34.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2	openexr	before 2.2.1-3.27.1	2.2.1-3.27.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 11 SP3	OpenEXR	before 1.6.1-83.17.25.1	1.6.1-83.17.25.1

Same product

openexr: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2023-5841OpenEXR Heap Overflow in Scanline Deep Data Parsing
36Monitor
CVE-2021-23169A heap-buffer overflow was found in the copyIntoFrameBuffer function of OpenEXR in versions before 3.0.1.
36Monitor
CVE-2017-9115In OpenEXR 2.2.0, an invalid write of size 2 in the = operator function in half.h could cause the application to crash or execute arbitrary
36Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2021-3477Mar 31, 2021 · There's a flaw in OpenEXR's deep tile sample size calculations in versions before 3.0.0-beta.
22Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2021-3478Mar 31, 2021 · There's a flaw in OpenEXR's scanline input file functionality in versions before 3.0.0-beta.
22Monitor
Later →CVE-2021-20296Apr 1, 2021 · A flaw was found in OpenEXR in versions before 3.0.0-beta.
22Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
debian:openexr	2.5.4-1 · Debian:12	Package registry (OSV)
opensuse:openexr	2.2.1-lp152.7.14.1 · openSUSE:Leap 15.2	Package registry (OSV)
suse:openexr	2.2.1-3.27.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2	Package registry (OSV)
suse:OpenEXR	1.6.1-83.17.25.1 · SUSE:Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 11 SP3	Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
A user must open a link or visit a page.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: none
Integrity: none
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Local
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: None
Integrity impact: None
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-400 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1function expand(node) {
2  return node.children.map(expand);
3}

Fixed

1const MAX_DEPTH = 32;
2function expand(node, depth = 0) {
3  if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep");
4  return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));
5}

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Endpoint Denial of ServiceT1499

Change log

Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:45 PM UTC

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

bugs.chromium.org/p/oss-fuzz/issues/detail?id=25370

Show all references (4 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records