dbcve.org
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2021-44227

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-12-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.1.38 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
In GNU Mailman before 2.1.38, a list member or moderator can get a CSRF token and craft an admin request (using that token) to set a new admin password or make other changes.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-352

The application can't tell whether a state-changing request was genuinely intended by the user, so an attacker can trick a logged-in victim's browser into making it. That can transfer funds, change settings, or create accounts silently. Remediation is anti-CSRF tokens — or equivalent same-site protections — on every state-changing request.

General guidance for the cross-site request forgery (csrf) class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
MailmanApplication
Affected:< 2.1.38

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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 2.1.38 or later
Fixed in 2.1.38
Vendor patch bugs.launchpad.net →
Recommended fix High confidence

Mailman 2.1.38

  1. 1. Identify the current Mailman version by running 'mailman --version' or checking the package manager
  2. 2. For Debian 9 systems: Check if Mailman 2.1.38 is available in backports by adding the backports repository (deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main)
  3. 3. Update package lists: 'apt update'
  4. 4. Install Mailman 2.1.38 from backports: 'apt install -t stretch-backports mailman'
  5. 5. If backports are unavailable, download Mailman 2.1.38 or later from the official GNU Mailman repository (https://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/)
  6. 6. Stop the Mailman service: 'systemctl stop mailman3' or 'systemctl stop mailman' depending on installation
  7. 7. If installing from source: Extract the archive, run './configure', 'make', 'make install'
  8. 8. Restart the Mailman service: 'systemctl start mailman' or 'systemctl start mailman3'
Caveat Review Mailman 2.1.38 release notes for any configuration or API changes before upgrading, and backup existing configuration files

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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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-2021-44227 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