Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Exiv2 versions before 0.27.5 can crash when modifying metadata in a specially crafted image. The impact is denial of service, not data theft or code execution. Business urgency is highest where automated image pipelines accept untrusted files and perform metadata writes.
Executive priority
Treat as a moderate operational resilience issue. Prioritize patching internet-facing or automated image-processing workflows first, especially where untrusted uploads are modified in bulk and a crash could interrupt service.
Technical view
The flaw is a CWE-617 reachable assertion failure in crwimage_int.cpp. Triggering requires local processing of a crafted image with metadata modification enabled. CVSS 3.1 is 5.5, with user interaction required and high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely in servers, desktop tools, or applications using exiv2/libexiv2 before 0.27.5 to modify image metadata from untrusted sources. Read-only metadata inspection is described as less exposed.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show KEV listing or active exploitation. Exploitation requires a crafted image and a victim workflow that modifies metadata, making this more constrained than passive image parsing bugs.
Researcher notes
Focus validation on metadata-write paths. The advisory notes command-line triggering requires an additional modifying action, such as a file information update, so read-only parsing tests may miss exposure. No public source in the bundle confirms exploitation in the wild.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade Exiv2 or libexiv2 to version 0.27.5 or later.
- Apply relevant distribution security updates from Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, or your vendor.
- Avoid metadata modification on untrusted images until patched.
- Review applications embedding libexiv2 for bundled vulnerable versions.
Validation and detection
- Inventory installed exiv2 and libexiv2 versions across endpoints and build images.
- Identify workflows that modify, not only read, metadata from user-supplied images.
- Confirm package manager advisories show the fixed update installed.
- Retest affected image-processing services after upgrading.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-617: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-32815 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H1.83.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.5MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/security/advisories/GHSA-mv9g-fxh2-m49mCVE reference
- https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/pull/1739CVE reference
- FEDORA-2021-399f869889CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2021-cbaef8e2d5CVE reference · vendor-advisory
- [debian-lts-announce] 20230110 [SECURITY] [DLA 3265-1] exiv2 security updateCVE reference · mailing-list
- GLSA-202312-06CVE reference · vendor-advisory
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Reachable Assertion
Reachable Assertion represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.