dbcve.org
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2021-3908

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-11-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.3.0 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
OctoRPKI does not limit the depth of a certificate chain, allowing for a CA to create children in an ad-hoc fashion, thereby making tree traversal never end.

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 · moderate confidence

OctoRPKI lacks a maximum depth limit during RPKI certificate chain validation. A malicious or misconfigured Certificate Authority can create an arbitrarily deep chain of certificates, causing the validation algorithm's tree traversal to loop infinitely and never terminate, resulting in denial of service.

MitigationImplement a maximum certificate chain depth limit during path validation in OctoRPKI to prevent infinite traversal; ensure the limit is configurable and set to a reasonable default (e.g., 10-20 levels).

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:= 11.0
OctorpkiApplication
Affected:< 1.3.0

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Verify OctoRPKI is installed
    Run 'which octorpki' or 'dpkg -l | grep octorpki' on Debian; check for the binary in typical locations like /usr/bin/octorpki or /usr/local/bin/octorpki
    Affected if OctoRPKI binary or package is found on the system
  2. Determine installed version
    Run 'octorpki --version' or 'dpkg -l octorpki' to get the exact version number
    Affected if Version is less than 1.3.0 (for Cloudflare package) or the package is from Debian 11.0
  3. Confirm the service is actively validating RPKI
    Check if octorpki process is running ('ps aux | grep octorpki') or if RPKI RTR sessions are configured/active
    Affected if OctoRPKI is running and performing RPKI certificate path validation
  4. Check for depth limit configuration
    Inspect octorpki configuration files (typically in /etc/octorpki/ or look for config flags via 'octorpki --help') for any max-depth, max-chain-length, or similar validation limit settings
    Affected if No maximum depth or chain length limit is configured in the validation settings

You are affected if OctoRPKI version < 1.3.0 (or the Debian 11.0 package) is installed and actively performing RPKI certificate chain validation without a configured depth limit.

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 1.3.0 or later
Fixed in 1.3.0
Interim mitigation

Implement a maximum certificate chain depth limit during path validation in OctoRPKI to prevent infinite traversal; ensure the limit is configurable and set to a reasonable default (e.g., 10-20 levels).

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

OctoRPKI 1.3.0 or later

  1. Identify all systems running OctoRPKI instances in your infrastructure
  2. Check current installed version of OctoRPKI using package manager or binary version flag
  3. Upgrade OctoRPKI to version 1.3.0 or later to receive the patch that limits certificate chain depth
  4. For Debian 11.0 systems, apply available security updates via 'apt update && apt upgrade' to get the fixed package if provided by Debian
  5. Restart the OctoRPKI service after upgrade to ensure the new version is running
  6. Verify the fix by checking release notes or changelog for version 1.3.0 confirming the resource consumption fix is included

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

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,888.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-3908 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2021-3908 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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.

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