A symbolic link issue was found in rpm. It occurs when rpm sets the desired permissions and credentials after installing a file. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to exchange the original file with a symbolic link to a security-critical file and escalate their privileges on the system. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.
CVE-2021-35938
Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-08-26. NVD baseline CVSS 6.7; sources differ by 1.1.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 6.7
- EG Score
- 7.8(medium)
- EG Risk
- 40(Track)EG Risk 40/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity78% × 45%Exploitation0% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS
- 39.3%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
August 25, 2022
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (14)
- secalert@redhathttps://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-35938
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1964114
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1157880
- secalert@redhathttps://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/commit/25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf3a9c033
- secalert@redhathttps://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/1919
- secalert@redhathttps://rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.18.0
- secalert@redhathttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202210-22
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-35938
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1964114
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1157880
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/commit/25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf3a9c033
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/1919
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.18.0
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202210-22
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-35938(8)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2024:1477Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift for Windows Containers 8.1.2 security update
- RHSA-2024:1383Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.15.0 security, enhancement, & bug fix update
- RHSA-2024:0647Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rpm security update
- RHSA-2024:0582Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rpm security update
- RHSA-2024:0435Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rpm security update
- RHSA-2024:0463Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rpm security update
- RHSA-2024:0453Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rpm security update
- RHSA-2024:0424Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rpm security update
Patch Availability(8)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | openshift4-wincw/windows-machine-config-rhel9-operator:8.1.2-13 | 2024-03-25 | redhat |
| redhat | odf4/rook-ceph-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-103 | 2024-03-19 | redhat |
| redhat | rpm-0:4.14.3-28.el8_9 | 2024-02-01 | redhat |
| redhat | rpm-0:4.14.3-28.el8_8 | 2024-01-30 | redhat |
| redhat | rpm-0:4.16.1.3-14.el9_0.1 | 2024-01-25 | redhat |
| redhat | rpm-0:4.14.3-26.el8_6 | 2024-01-25 | redhat |
| redhat | rpm-0:4.16.1.3-27.el9_3 | 2024-01-25 | redhat |
| redhat | rpm-0:4.16.1.3-24.el9_2 | 2024-01-25 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(1)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 15× in last 7d / 47× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 103 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-07-23 02:02 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:49 UTCEG score recompute
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Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-35938?
When was CVE-2021-35938 disclosed?
Is CVE-2021-35938 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-35938?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-35938?
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2021-35938
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