CVE-2021-3781

CRITICALNVD 9.99.9—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 9.9 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2022-02-17. NVD baseline CVSS 9.9; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Elevated
9.9
EchelonGraph verdictPatch this weekExploitation is likely or a public exploit exists.
  • High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 84%
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 84%CVSS: 9.9Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

A trivial sandbox (enabled with the -dSAFER option) escape flaw was found in the ghostscript interpreter by injecting a specially crafted pipe command. This flaw allows a specially crafted document to execute arbitrary commands on the system in the context of the ghostscript interpreter. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability.

CVSS v3
9.9
EG Score
9.9(medium)
EPSS
99.7%
KEV
Not listed

Published

February 16, 2022

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Jul 21, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
generic

GPL Ghostscript: Multiple Vulnerabilities (GLSA 202211-11) — Gentoo security

https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202211-11
generic

Ghostscript : CVE-2021-3781

https://ghostscript.com/CVE-2021-3781.html
redhat Patch Available

2002271 – (CVE-2021-3781) CVE-2021-3781 ghostscript: sandbox escape using '%pipe%'

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2002271

Patch Availability(1)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntulibgs9-common (9.53.3~dfsg-7ubuntu0.1) @ hirsute2026-05-26ubuntu

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(2)

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

All Vendor Advisories

(1)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 20× 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.

  1. 2026-07-20 17:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-17 22:59 UTCOSV refresh
  3. 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-16 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-29 20:23 UTCOSV refresh
  14. 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-16 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 38 more
  1. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-12 08:40 UTCOSV refresh
  5. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-05-26 02:55 UTCEG score recompute
  37. 2026-05-26 02:55 UTCVendor advisory
  38. 2026-05-26 02:55 UTCGHSA enrichment

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2021-3781?
CVE-2021-3781 is a critical vulnerability published on February 16, 2022. A trivial sandbox (enabled with the -dSAFER option) escape flaw was found in the ghostscript interpreter by injecting a specially crafted pipe command. This flaw allows a specially crafted document to execute arbitrary commands on the system in the context of the ghostscript interpreter. The…
When was CVE-2021-3781 disclosed?
CVE-2021-3781 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on February 16, 2022, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2021-3781 actively exploited?
CVE-2021-3781 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 99.7% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-3781?
CVE-2021-3781 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.9 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2021-3781?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2021-3781, 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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