A deadlock vulnerability was found in 'github.com/containers/storage' in versions before 1.28.1. When a container image is processed, each layer is unpacked using tar. If one of those layers is not a valid tar archive this causes an error leading to an unexpected situation where the code indefinitely waits for the tar unpacked stream, which never finishes. An attacker could use this vulnerability to craft a malicious image, which when downloaded and stored by an application using containers/storage, would then cause a deadlock leading to a Denial of Service (DoS).
CVE-2021-20291
This medium-severity CVE scores 6.5 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 1.0%, top 22% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 6.5
- EG Score
- 6.5(medium)
- EPSS
- 72.8%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
April 1, 2021
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (12)
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1939485
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/R5D7XL7FL24TWFMGQ3K2S72EOUSLZMKL/
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/SPYOHNG2Q7DCAQZMGYLMENLKALGDLG3X/
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WX24EITRXVHDM5M223BVTJA2ODF2FSHI/
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZNMB7O2UIXE34PGSCSOULGHPX5LIJBMM/
- secalert@redhathttps://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/cve-2021-20291/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1939485
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/R5D7XL7FL24TWFMGQ3K2S72EOUSLZMKL/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/SPYOHNG2Q7DCAQZMGYLMENLKALGDLG3X/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/WX24EITRXVHDM5M223BVTJA2ODF2FSHI/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZNMB7O2UIXE34PGSCSOULGHPX5LIJBMM/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/cve-2021-20291/
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-20291(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(7)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | skopeo-2:1.9.2-1.el9 | 2022-11-15 | redhat |
| redhat | buildah-1:1.27.0-2.el9 | 2022-11-15 | redhat |
| redhat | podman-2:4.2.0-3.el9 | 2022-11-15 | redhat |
| redhat | container-tools:3.0-8050020220104131412.e34216c9 | 2022-02-01 | redhat |
| redhat | container-tools:rhel8-8050020210921082437.faa19cc5 | 2021-11-09 | redhat |
| redhat | openshift4/ose-docker-builder:v4.8.0-202107152024.p0.git.70b7b95.assembly.stream | 2021-07-27 | redhat |
| redhat | openshift-0:4.7.0-202104090228.p0.git.97111.77863f8.el7 | 2021-04-20 | redhat |
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
(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Go(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/containers/storage | — | 1.28.1 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(6)
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.
- Red HatRHBA-2022:0348MODERATE2021-04-01
RHBA-2022:0348 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2021:1150MODERATE2021-04-01
RHSA-2021:1150 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4154MODERATE2021-04-01
RHSA-2021:4154 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2022:7954MODERATE2021-04-01
RHSA-2022:7954 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2022:7955MODERATE2021-04-01
RHSA-2022:7955 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2022:8008MODERATE2021-04-01
RHSA-2022:8008 — Moderate
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 11× in last 7d / 47× 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.
- 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 06:18 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 10:43 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 18:55 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-26 18:55 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-05-24 16:49 UTCEPSS rescore
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
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Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-20291?
When was CVE-2021-20291 disclosed?
Is CVE-2021-20291 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-20291?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-20291?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-20291
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-20291?
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