A flaw was found in python-pip in the way it handled Unicode separators in git references. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to install a different revision on a repository. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data integrity. This is fixed in python-pip version 21.1.
CVE-2021-3572
This medium-severity CVE scores 5.7 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 1.7%, top 25% 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
- 5.7
- EG Score
- 5.7(medium)
- EG Risk
- 46(Track)EG Risk 46/100SSVC: 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 computedSeverity57% × 45%Exploitation40% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 2%
- EPSS %ILE
- 77%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
November 10, 2021
Last Modified
August 25, 2026
Advisory Details (2)
Auto-updated Aug 25, 20261962856 – (CVE-2021-3572) CVE-2021-3572 python-pip: Incorrect handling of unicode separators in git references
Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1962856Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-3572(4)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2021:4160Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: python39:3.9 and python39-devel:3.9 security update
- RHSA-2021:4455Red Hat Product SecurityLow
Red Hat Security Advisory: python-pip security update
- RHSA-2021:4162Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: python38:3.8 and python38-devel:3.8 security update
- RHSA-2021:3254Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rh-python38 security, bug fix, and enhancement update
Patch Availability(5)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | python3-pip (1.5.4-1ubuntu4+esm1) @ trusty | 2026-08-25 | ubuntu |
| redhat | python39-devel:3.9-8050020210811100211.d428a79b | 2021-11-09 | redhat |
| redhat | python38-devel:3.8-8050020210811101222.e3d35cca | 2021-11-09 | redhat |
| redhat | python-pip-0:9.0.3-20.el8 | 2021-11-09 | redhat |
| redhat | rh-python38-python-urllib3-0:1.25.7-7.el7 | 2021-08-24 | 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
(5 across 5 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| python-pip | — | 20.3.4-2 | — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| python-pip | — | 20.3.4-2 | — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| python-pip | — | 20.3.4-2 | — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| python-pip | — | 20.3.4-2 | — |
PyPI(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| pip | 0.2 ... 9.0.3 (102 versions) | 21.1 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(2)
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.
- Microsoft MSRCCVE-2021-35722022-04-09
A flaw was found in python-pip in the way it handled Unicode separators in git references. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to install a different revision on a repository. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data integrity. This is fixed in python-pip version 21.1.
- UbuntuUSN-4961-2LOW
pip vulnerability
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 33× 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 155 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-09-07 15:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-05 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-04 13:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-04 05:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-02 14:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-01 03:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-30 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-28 21:37 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-27 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-26 14:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-25 16:34 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-08-25 16:34 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-08-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-24 14:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-23 00:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-19 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-19 15:02 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-18 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-15 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-13 21:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-12 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-11 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-09 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-07 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-04 10:57 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-03 10:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-02 02:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-28 15:33 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-25 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 02:02 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:49 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 07:59 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 06:00 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
Publicly available exploits
(1 reference)Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- GitHub PoCfrenzymadness/CVE-2021-3572First seen Jun 7, 2021
A simple repository helping to test CVE-2021-3572 in PyPA/pip
Open source ↗
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-3572?
When was CVE-2021-3572 disclosed?
Is CVE-2021-3572 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-3572?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-3572?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-3572
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-3572?
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