CVE-2021-21419
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedEventlet is a concurrent networking library for Python. A websocket peer may exhaust memory on Eventlet side by sending very large websocket frames. Malicious peer may exhaust memory on Eventlet side by sending highly compressed data frame. A patch in version 0.31.0 restricts websocket frame to reasonable limits. As a workaround, restricting memory usage via OS limits would help against overall machine exhaustion, but there is no workaround to protect Eventlet process.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceEventlet's WebSocket implementation lacks proper bounds checking on incoming frame sizes, allowing remote peers to send oversized or highly compressed frames that consume excessive memory, leading to denial of service through memory exhaustion.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 33= 34>= 0.10, < 0.31.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Check installed Eventlet versionRun 'pip show eventlet' or check your requirements file for the installed version of the eventlet packageAffected if The installed version is >= 0.10.0 and < 0.31.0
-
Identify WebSocket usage in application codeSearch source code for imports of websocket-related modules such as 'eventlet.wsgi' or 'eventlet.websocket' and examine if the application creates WebSocket servers or handles WebSocket connectionsAffected if The application imports or uses Eventlet's WebSocket functionality (eventlet.websocket or wsgi with WebSocket) to handle incoming connections
-
Verify exposed WebSocket endpointsReview application routing configuration to identify endpoints that accept WebSocket connections (often recognized by 'ws://' or 'wss://' protocols or Upgrade headers)Affected if The application exposes any WebSocket endpoints that external clients can connect to
If Eventlet version is below 0.31.0 and the application uses Eventlet's WebSocket functionality to accept connections from remote clients, the environment is vulnerable to memory exhaustion via oversized WebSocket frames.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data0.31.0
Upgrade Eventlet to version 0.31.0 or later which implements proper WebSocket frame size limits. As a temporary OS-level measure, memory limits can help but do not fully protect the Eventlet process.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-21419 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-21419 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data