CVE-2021-20197

MEDIUMNVD 6.36.3—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 6.3 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 6.3; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
6.3EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS: 6.3Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip, ranlib. When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can trick these utilities into getting ownership of arbitrary files through a symlink.

CVSS v3
6.3
EG Score
6.3(medium)
EG Risk
28(Track)
EG Risk 28/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity63% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
23%
KEV
Not listed

Published

March 26, 2021

Last Modified

December 3, 2025

References (8)

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-20197(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(1)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatbinutils-0:2.30-108.el82021-11-09redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
binutils2.35.2-2 ... 2.47-2 (213 versions)——
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
binutils—2.37-3—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
binutils—2.37-3—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
binutils—2.37-3—

Weakness Classification(2)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Additional Vendor Advisories

(1)

Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 29× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 161 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-09-19 15:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-09-18 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-09-17 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-16 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
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  11. 2026-09-08 21:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-09-07 15:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-09-06 20:31 UTCOSV refresh
  14. 2026-09-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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  21. 2026-09-01 03:32 UTCEPSS rescore
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  24. 2026-08-28 21:37 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-08-26 14:42 UTCEPSS rescore
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  3. 2026-08-23 00:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-20 06:34 UTCOSV refresh
  7. 2026-08-19 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-18 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-17 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
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  12. 2026-08-15 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
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  19. 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-08-05 01:40 UTCOSV refresh
  22. 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-08-03 10:32 UTCEPSS rescore
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  27. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
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  34. 2026-07-23 01:56 UTCEG score recompute
  35. 2026-07-22 22:43 UTCEG score recompute
  36. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
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  39. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-07-18 23:29 UTCOSV refresh
  43. 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
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  47. 2026-07-15 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
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  52. 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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  54. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
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  58. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
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  64. 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-07-01 06:18 UTCOSV refresh
  67. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
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  72. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
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  74. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2021-20197?
CVE-2021-20197 is a medium vulnerability published on March 26, 2021. There is an open race window when writing output in the following utilities in GNU binutils version 2.35 and earlier:ar, objcopy, strip, ranlib. When these utilities are run as a privileged user (presumably as part of a script updating binaries across different users), an unprivileged user can…
When was CVE-2021-20197 disclosed?
CVE-2021-20197 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on March 26, 2021, with the most recent update on December 3, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2021-20197 actively exploited?
CVE-2021-20197 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 76.6% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-20197?
CVE-2021-20197 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.3 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2021-20197?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2021-20197, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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