CVE-2021-29428

HIGHNVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This high-severity CVE scores 7.8 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.5% (43rd percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs). 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).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, nvd
Trending — 4 sources updated this week
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.5%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

In Gradle before version 7.0, on Unix-like systems, the system temporary directory can be created with open permissions that allow multiple users to create and delete files within it. Gradle builds could be vulnerable to a local privilege escalation from an attacker quickly deleting and recreating files in the system temporary directory. This vulnerability impacted builds using precompiled script plugins written in Kotlin DSL and tests for Gradle plugins written using ProjectBuilder or TestKit. If you are on Windows or modern versions of macOS, you are not vulnerable. If you are on a Unix-like operating system with the "sticky" bit set on your system temporary directory, you are not vulnerable. The problem has been patched and released with Gradle 7.0. As a workaround, on Unix-like operating systems, ensure that the "sticky" bit is set. This only allows the original user (or root) to delete a file. If you are unable to change the permissions of the system temporary directory, you can move the Java temporary directory by setting the System Property java.io.tmpdir. The new path needs to limit permissions to the build user only. For additional details refer to the referenced GitHub Security Advisory.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8HIGHmedium confidence
EG Risk
35
EG Risk 35/100CISA SSVC

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
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation1% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
EPSS PROB
0.5%
EPSS %ILE
43rd
KEV
Not listed

CISA SSVCTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

April 13, 2021

Last Modified

October 8, 2026

Advisory Details (4)

Auto-updated Aug 24, 2026
Patch available. Sources: github_pr, github.
githubMentions a patch (unverified)

Local privilege escalation through system temporary directory · Advisory · gradle/gradle · GitHub

https://github.com/gradle/gradle/security/advisories/GHSA-89qm-pxvm-p336
github_pr Patch Available

Refactor temporary directory usages

Patch available: gradle/gradle v9.2.0-RC3 (PR #15654 merged 2021-03-10)

https://github.com/gradle/gradle/pull/15654
github_pr Patch Available

Refactor uses & creation of temp files/dirs to use unified API

Patch available: gradle/gradle v9.2.0-RC3 (PR #15240 merged 2020-12-09)

https://github.com/gradle/gradle/pull/15240
generic

Gradle 7.0 Release Notes

https://docs.gradle.org/7.0/release-notes.html#security-advisories

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-29428(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 / EcosystemFix (by version range) / PatchReleasedSource
redhatgradle2022-05-18redhat

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 rangeFix by version rangeDependents
gradle4.4.1-13 ... 4.4.1-23 (11 versions)
  • every version on: no fix on record
—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
gradle4.4.1-18 ... 4.4.1-23 (6 versions)
  • every version on: no fix on record
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
gradle4.4.1-22, 4.4.1-23
  • every version on: no fix on record
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
gradle4.4.1-22, 4.4.1-23
  • every version on: no fix on record
—

Weakness Classification(2)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 13× in last 7d / 38× 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 192 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-10-09 20:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-10-08 22:28 UTCEG score recompute▼ 1.00
  3. 2026-10-08 22:28 UTCVendor advisory
  4. 2026-10-08 22:19 UTCNVD updateCVSS v3 → 7.8
  5. 2026-10-08 21:33 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-10-08 21:33 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-10-08 16:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-10-07 23:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-10-06 15:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-10-05 17:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-10-04 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-10-03 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-10-03 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-10-02 16:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-10-01 19:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-09-30 15:34 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-09-30 15:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-09-29 15:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-09-28 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-09-27 13:41 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-09-26 15:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-09-26 15:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-09-26 00:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-09-24 14:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-09-23 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-09-21 20:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-09-20 03:20 UTCOSV refresh
  3. 2026-09-19 15:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-18 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-09-17 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-09-17 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-09-16 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-09-15 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-09-15 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-09-13 16:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-09-12 14:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-09-11 14:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-09-11 09:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-09-08 21:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-09-07 15:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-09-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-09-05 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-09-04 13:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-09-04 05:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-09-04 05:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-09-02 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-09-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-09-01 06:53 UTCOSV refresh
  24. 2026-09-01 03:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-08-30 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-08-28 21:37 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-08-27 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-08-26 14:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-08-25 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-08-24 14:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-08-23 00:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-08-19 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-08-18 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-08-16 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-08-15 06:37 UTCOSV refresh
  42. 2026-08-15 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-08-13 21:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-08-12 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-08-11 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-08-09 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-08-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-08-07 16:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-08-03 10:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-08-02 02:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-07-30 18:21 UTCOSV refresh
  57. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-07-30 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-07-28 15:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-07-25 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-07-23 01:59 UTCEG score recompute
  68. 2026-07-22 22:46 UTCEG score recompute
  69. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore

Related CVEs(same product + same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2021-29428?
CVE-2021-29428 is a high vulnerability published on April 13, 2021. In Gradle before version 7.0, on Unix-like systems, the system temporary directory can be created with open permissions that allow multiple users to create and delete files within it. Gradle builds could be vulnerable to a local privilege escalation from an attacker quickly deleting and recreating…
When was CVE-2021-29428 disclosed?
CVE-2021-29428 was first published on April 13, 2021, with the most recent update on October 8, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2021-29428 actively exploited?
CVE-2021-29428 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (43rd percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-29428?
CVE-2021-29428 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2021-29428?
A fix for CVE-2021-29428 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2021-29428 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-29428

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-29428?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.

Book a Demo →Browse All CVEs