Vulnerability-Lookup

Vulnerability from bitnami_vulndb

Published

2024-03-06 10:57

Modified

2026-09-08 08:34

Summary

Details

ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.5 mishandles excessively nested JSON objects. Crafted JSON objects with nesting tens-of-thousands deep could result in the web server being unable to service legitimate requests. Even a moderately large (e.g., 300KB) HTTP request can occupy one of the limited NGINX worker processes for minutes and consume almost all of the available CPU on the machine. Modsecurity 2 is similarly vulnerable: the affected versions include 2.8.0 through 2.9.4.

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Bitnami",
        "name": "modsecurity",
        "purl": "pkg:bitnami/modsecurity"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "2.0.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2.9.5"
            }
          ],
          "type": "SEMVER"
        }
      ],
      "severity": [
        {
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
          "type": "CVSS_V3"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2021-42717"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cpes": [
      "cpe:2.3:a:trustwave:modsecurity:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
    ],
    "severity": "High"
  },
  "details": "ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.5 mishandles excessively nested JSON objects. Crafted JSON objects with nesting tens-of-thousands deep could result in the web server being unable to service legitimate requests. Even a moderately large (e.g., 300KB) HTTP request can occupy one of the limited NGINX worker processes for minutes and consume almost all of the available CPU on the machine. Modsecurity 2 is similarly vulnerable: the affected versions include 2.8.0 through 2.9.4.",
  "id": "BIT-modsecurity-2021-42717",
  "modified": "2026-09-08T08:34:36.952Z",
  "published": "2024-03-06T10:57:07.180Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/05/msg00042.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5023"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/modsecurity-dos-vulnerability-in-json-parsing-cve-2021-42717/"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-42717"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.5.0"
}

CVE-2021-42717 (GCVE-0-2021-42717)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2021-12-07 21:08 – Updated: 2024-08-04 03:38

Summary

Severity

No CVSS data available.

CWE

Assigner

mitre mitre root

References

4 references

URL	Tags
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5023	vendor-advisoryx_refsource_DEBIAN
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html	x_refsource_MISC
https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/s…	x_refsource_MISC
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022…	mailing-listx_refsource_MLIST

Show details on NVD website

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "containers": {
    "adp": [
      {
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2024-08-04T03:38:49.325Z",
          "orgId": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108",
          "shortName": "CVE"
        },
        "references": [
          {
            "name": "DSA-5023",
            "tags": [
              "vendor-advisory",
              "x_refsource_DEBIAN",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5023"
          },
          {
            "tags": [
              "x_refsource_MISC",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html"
          },
          {
            "tags": [
              "x_refsource_MISC",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/modsecurity-dos-vulnerability-in-json-parsing-cve-2021-42717/"
          },
          {
            "name": "[debian-lts-announce] 20220528 [SECURITY] [DLA 3031-1] modsecurity-apache security update",
            "tags": [
              "mailing-list",
              "x_refsource_MLIST",
              "x_transferred"
            ],
            "url": "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/05/msg00042.html"
          }
        ],
        "title": "CVE Program Container"
      }
    ],
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "product": "n/a",
          "vendor": "n/a",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "n/a"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.5 mishandles excessively nested JSON objects. Crafted JSON objects with nesting tens-of-thousands deep could result in the web server being unable to service legitimate requests. Even a moderately large (e.g., 300KB) HTTP request can occupy one of the limited NGINX worker processes for minutes and consume almost all of the available CPU on the machine. Modsecurity 2 is similarly vulnerable: the affected versions include 2.8.0 through 2.9.4."
        }
      ],
      "problemTypes": [
        {
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "description": "n/a",
              "lang": "en",
              "type": "text"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2022-05-28T09:06:09.000Z",
        "orgId": "8254265b-2729-46b6-b9e3-3dfca2d5bfca",
        "shortName": "mitre"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "DSA-5023",
          "tags": [
            "vendor-advisory",
            "x_refsource_DEBIAN"
          ],
          "url": "https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5023"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_MISC"
          ],
          "url": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_MISC"
          ],
          "url": "https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/modsecurity-dos-vulnerability-in-json-parsing-cve-2021-42717/"
        },
        {
          "name": "[debian-lts-announce] 20220528 [SECURITY] [DLA 3031-1] modsecurity-apache security update",
          "tags": [
            "mailing-list",
            "x_refsource_MLIST"
          ],
          "url": "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/05/msg00042.html"
        }
      ],
      "x_legacyV4Record": {
        "CVE_data_meta": {
          "ASSIGNER": "cve@mitre.org",
          "ID": "CVE-2021-42717",
          "STATE": "PUBLIC"
        },
        "affects": {
          "vendor": {
            "vendor_data": [
              {
                "product": {
                  "product_data": [
                    {
                      "product_name": "n/a",
                      "version": {
                        "version_data": [
                          {
                            "version_value": "n/a"
                          }
                        ]
                      }
                    }
                  ]
                },
                "vendor_name": "n/a"
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        "data_format": "MITRE",
        "data_type": "CVE",
        "data_version": "4.0",
        "description": {
          "description_data": [
            {
              "lang": "eng",
              "value": "ModSecurity 3.x through 3.0.5 mishandles excessively nested JSON objects. Crafted JSON objects with nesting tens-of-thousands deep could result in the web server being unable to service legitimate requests. Even a moderately large (e.g., 300KB) HTTP request can occupy one of the limited NGINX worker processes for minutes and consume almost all of the available CPU on the machine. Modsecurity 2 is similarly vulnerable: the affected versions include 2.8.0 through 2.9.4."
            }
          ]
        },
        "problemtype": {
          "problemtype_data": [
            {
              "description": [
                {
                  "lang": "eng",
                  "value": "n/a"
                }
              ]
            }
          ]
        },
        "references": {
          "reference_data": [
            {
              "name": "DSA-5023",
              "refsource": "DEBIAN",
              "url": "https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5023"
            },
            {
              "name": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html",
              "refsource": "MISC",
              "url": "https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html"
            },
            {
              "name": "https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/modsecurity-dos-vulnerability-in-json-parsing-cve-2021-42717/",
              "refsource": "MISC",
              "url": "https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/modsecurity-dos-vulnerability-in-json-parsing-cve-2021-42717/"
            },
            {
              "name": "[debian-lts-announce] 20220528 [SECURITY] [DLA 3031-1] modsecurity-apache security update",
              "refsource": "MLIST",
              "url": "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/05/msg00042.html"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "8254265b-2729-46b6-b9e3-3dfca2d5bfca",
    "assignerShortName": "mitre",
    "cveId": "CVE-2021-42717",
    "datePublished": "2021-12-07T21:08:28.000Z",
    "dateReserved": "2021-10-19T00:00:00.000Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2024-08-04T03:38:49.325Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.1"
}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.

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Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.

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Vulnerability from bitnami_vulndb

CVE-2021-42717 (GCVE-0-2021-42717)

Tags

Sightings

Nomenclature

Related by attack behaviour