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NVD / CVE Program· CNA redhat

CVE-2021-4214: A heap overflow flaw was found in libpngs' pngimage.c program.

MediumCVSS 5.5 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded

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: 0.54% (FIRST EPSS).
  • 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.
  • According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

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

A heap overflow flaw was found in libpngs' pngimage.c program. This flaw allows an attacker with local network access to pass a specially crafted PNG file to the pngimage utility, causing an application to crash, leading to a denial of service.

Published
Aug 24, 2022
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.5% · 46th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

22

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
22 / 40 · 5.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.5%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2021-4214

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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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.

VendorProduct
libpnglibpng
debiandebian linux
netappontap select deploy administration utility

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 libpng

    • libpng v1.6affected
Affected versions · NVD (4)

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 linux11.0
  • libpng libpng1.6.0
  • netapp ontap select deploy administration utilityall versions

Package-level exposure

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

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12libpng1.6from 0—

Same product

libpng: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2010-1205Buffer overflow in pngpread.c in libpng before 1.2.44 and 1.4.x before 1.4.3, as used in progressive applications, might allow remote…
    52Plan
  • CVE-2017-12652libpng before 1.6.32 does not properly check the length of chunks against the user limit.
    40Plan
  • CVE-2015-8540Integer underflow in the png_check_keyword function in pngwutil.c in libpng 0.90 through 0.99, 1.0.x before 1.0.66, 1.1.x and 1.2.x before…
    37Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2019-7317Feb 4, 2019 · png_image_free in png.c in libpng 1.6.x before 1.6.37 has a use-after-free because png_image_free_function is called under png_safe_execute.
    24Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2018-14550Jul 10, 2019 · An issue has been found in third-party PNM decoding associated with libpng 1.6.35.
    36Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2025-64505Nov 25, 2025 · LIBPNG is vulnerable to a heap buffer overflow in `png_do_quantize` via malformed palette index
    24Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

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

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

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.

Not on record for this CVE: EPSS history · patch commit or PR link · researcher credit · variant or chain candidate · public bounty program.

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-120 · Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow')

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

When data is copied, the source length is not compared with the size of the destination buffer. Excess data overwrites adjacent memory.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-120 class

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

Vulnerable

c
char buf[256];memcpy(buf, pkt->data, pkt->len);

Fixed

c
char buf[256];if (pkt->len > sizeof(buf)) {  return -EINVAL;}memcpy(buf, pkt->data, pkt->len);

Attack context

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

ATT&CK techniques

—

References

Show all references (2 more)

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

All records