CVE-2021-22204mediumunder attackCWE-94

CVE-2021-22204: medium-severity vulnerability in ExifTool

Published · Updated

Follow this CVE+ Monitor exiftool+ Monitor Exiftool

E-mail alert when it lands in KEV, gets a public PoC or its score goes up.

100Vexday Risk Score

Patch now. It under exploitation confirmed by CISA and has a working public exploit.

ssvc Actcvss 6.8epss 100%
from disclosure to weapon18 days
Published on NVDApr 23
1st PoC+18d
metasploitApr 14
CISA KEV+208d
What the vendors declare (VEX)

Official vendor statements in CSAF/VEX format: whether their product is affected, already fixed, or ruled out — and why. These are the vendor's assertions, not Vexday's judgment.

Red HatVEX document ↗
Not affected
1 product — because the vulnerable code is not present in the product
red_hat_products
Action required by CISAfederal deadline: 2021-12-01

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

In short

ExifTool can be tricked into running harmful code when reading a specially crafted DjVu image file. An attacker can exploit this by sending a malicious image that executes arbitrary commands on the affected system.

Technical detail

ExifTool versions 7.44+ fail to properly neutralize untrusted input when parsing DjVu file metadata, allowing injection of arbitrary code through crafted image files. The attack vector is local/remote file parsing with no user interaction required; successful exploitation leads to arbitrary code execution in the context of the ExifTool process.

Summary generated and translated by AI from the official description.

The full analysis of this CVE is available in Portuguese →

Improper neutralization of user data in the DjVu file format in ExifTool versions 7.44 and up allows arbitrary code execution when parsing the malicious image
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
Affected products
ExifTool · ExifTool
public PoCs found — 41
exploitdbwww.exploit-db.com/exploits/50911unverifiedgithubgithub.com/convisolabs/CVE-2021-22204-exiftool★ 96githubgithub.com/UNICORDev/exploit-CVE-2021-22204★ 55githubgithub.com/AssassinUKG/CVE-2021-22204★ 28githubgithub.com/se162xg/CVE-2021-22204★ 12githubgithub.com/mr-tuhin/CVE-2021-22204-exiftool★ 9githubgithub.com/bilkoh/POC-CVE-2021-22204★ 8githubgithub.com/Akash7350/CVE-2021-22204★ 4githubgithub.com/trganda/CVE-2021-22204★ 3githubgithub.com/PenTestical/CVE-2021-22204★ 3githubgithub.com/ph-arm/CVE-2021-22204-Gitlab★ 2githubgithub.com/0xBruno/CVE-2021-22204★ 2githubgithub.com/d4ytox/CVE-2021-22204★ 1githubgithub.com/Asaad27/CVE-2021-22204-RSE★ 0githubgithub.com/Roronoawjd/CVE-2021-22204★ 0githubgithub.com/battleofthebots/dejavu★ 0githubgithub.com/cc3305/CVE-2021-22204★ 0githubgithub.com/cyfrowesny/exiftool-7.44-12.23-exploit-CVE-2021-22204★ 0cve_referencepacketstormsecurity.com/files/164768/GitLab-Unauthenticated-Remote-ExifTool-Command-Injection.htmlunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/11cab1d195edunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/793a0410f319unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/195f85ead56cunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/0e17974417e2unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/c7f016c6ff9cunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/c1144f28258funverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/0c2c0a7d6b52unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/228b3b833130unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/2e739ce176b6unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/c1c6e7d5d1dcunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/9c966b28d48aunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/72105893a08aunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/5ad37e033ef8unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/162401353b6bunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/c7544f312048unverifiedcve_referencepacketstormsecurity.com/files/162558/ExifTool-DjVu-ANT-Perl-Injection.htmlunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/d1474a725dfcunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/c622b8a5557eunverifiedcve_referencepacketstormsecurity.com/files/164994/GitLab-13.10.2-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/e1aa99af6ce6unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/34dee33ab071unverifiedcve_referencepacketstormsecurity.com/files/167038/ExifTool-12.23-Arbitrary-Code-Execution.htmlunverified
⚠ Public resources, to assess the exposure of systems you control or are authorized to test. Test only with authorization.