There's a flaw in urllib's AbstractBasicAuthHandler class. An attacker who controls a malicious HTTP server that an HTTP client (such as web browser) connects to, could trigger a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDOS) during an authentication request with a specially crafted payload that is sent by the server to the client. The greatest threat that this flaw poses is to application availability.
CVE-2021-3733
Score 6.5 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-03-11. NVD baseline CVSS 6.5; sources differ by 0.0.
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 6.5
- EG Score
- 6.5(medium)
- EPSS
- 90.8%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
March 10, 2022
Last Modified
November 3, 2025
References (17)
- secalert@redhathttps://bugs.python.org/issue43075
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1995234
- secalert@redhathttps://github.com/python/cpython/commit/7215d1ae25525c92b026166f9d5cac85fb
- secalert@redhathttps://github.com/python/cpython/pull/24391
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00024.html
- secalert@redhathttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/06/msg00039.html
- secalert@redhathttps://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220407-0001/
- secalert@redhathttps://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-3733
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugs.python.org/issue43075
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1995234
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/7215d1ae25525c92b026166f9d5cac85fb
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/24391
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00024.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/06/msg00039.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/12/msg00000.html
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-3733(6)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2022:1821Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: python27:2.7 security update
- RHSA-2022:1764Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: python38:3.8 and python38-devel:3.8 security update
- RHSA-2022:1663Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: python27-python and python27-python-pip security update
- RHSA-2021:4160Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: python39:3.9 and python39-devel:3.9 security update
- RHSA-2021:4057Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: python3 security update
- RHSA-2021:3254Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: rh-python38 security, bug fix, and enhancement update
Patch Availability(10)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | python3.4-venv (3.4.3-1ubuntu1~14.04.7+esm11) @ trusty | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | libpython3.6-minimal (3.6.9-1~18.04ubuntu1.6) @ bionic | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | libpython3.7 (3.7.5-2ubuntu1~18.04.2) @ bionic | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | python3.8-venv (3.8.0-3ubuntu1~18.04.2+esm2) @ bionic | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| redhat | python38-devel:3.8-8060020220120164031.5294be16 | 2022-05-10 | redhat |
| redhat | python27:2.7-8060020220210185952.8cdc2268 | 2022-05-10 | redhat |
| redhat | python27-python-0:2.7.18-4.el7 | 2022-05-02 | redhat |
| redhat | python39-devel:3.9-8050020210811100211.d428a79b | 2021-11-09 | redhat |
| redhat | python3-0:3.6.8-39.el8_4 | 2021-11-02 | 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.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(5)
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-2021-37332022-06-02
There's a flaw in urllib's AbstractBasicAuthHandler class. An attacker who controls a malicious HTTP server that an HTTP client (such as web browser) connects to could trigger a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDOS) during an authentication request with a specially crafted payload that is sent by the server to the client. The greatest threat that this flaw poses is to application availability.
- UbuntuUSN-5083-1MEDIUM
Python vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-5199-1MEDIUM
Python vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-5200-1MEDIUM
Python vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-6891-1MEDIUM
Python vulnerabilities
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 12× in last 7d / 48× 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 104 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-12 07:36 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
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Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownmsrc · redhat
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-400
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-3733?
When was CVE-2021-3733 disclosed?
Is CVE-2021-3733 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-3733?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-3733?
Dependency Blast Radius
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