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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 1 Dec 2021.
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2021-22204

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-04-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 12.24 or later.
See remediation →
97/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit No privileges Patch available

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 · unedited
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

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 confidence

ExifTool versions 7.44 and above contain an improper neutralization vulnerability when parsing DjVu file format images, allowing arbitrary code execution via malicious image files.

MitigationUpgrade ExifTool to a patched version or implement file-type validation to block untrusted DjVu files from being processed.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 32= 33= 34
ExiftoolApplication
Affected:>= 7.44, < 12.24

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate ExifTool installation
    Run 'which exiftool' or 'find /usr -name exiftool -type f 2>/dev/null' to find the executable path
    Affected if ExifTool is not found on the system - not applicable
  2. Determine ExifTool version
    Run 'exiftool -ver' or 'exiftool -version' to obtain the installed version number
    Affected if The version shown is 7.44 or higher but lower than 12.24
  3. Check for DjVu file processing capability
    Run 'exiftool -listf' to see supported file formats; look for 'DjVu' in the output
    Affected if DjVu is listed as a supported format and the version falls in the affected range
  4. Identify active DjVu files
    Search for .djvu files in your environment using 'find / -name "*.djvu" 2>/dev/null' or check application logs for DjVu file processing
    Affected if DjVu files exist or are being processed and the ExifTool version is in the affected range

You are affected if ExifTool version 7.44 through 12.23 is installed and DjVu file format support is present or being used.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 12.24 or later
Fixed in 12.24
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade ExifTool to a patched version or implement file-type validation to block untrusted DjVu files from being processed.

Recommended fix High confidence

ExifTool 12.24 or later (e.g., latest stable release from https://exiftool.org/)

  1. Identify the current ExifTool version installed on the system using: `exiftool -ver` or your distribution's package manager (e.g., `dpkg -l | grep exiftool` for Debian, `rpm -qi perl-Image-ExifTool` for Fedora)
  2. Upgrade ExifTool to version 12.24 or later using your system's package manager
  3. For Debian/Ubuntu: Run `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl` or download the latest version from CPAN
  4. For Fedora: Run `sudo dnf update perl-Image-ExifTool`
  5. For other systems: Install from CPAN using `cpan -T Image::ExifTool` or download directly from https://exiftool.org/
  6. Verify the upgrade was successful by running `exiftool -ver` and confirming the version is 12.24 or higher
  7. Test that ExifTool still functions correctly with your expected image file operations
Caveat Minimal risk - upgrading to a newer minor version within the same major release should maintain backward compatibility for standard ExifTool usage

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-22204 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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