# CVE-2021-25252: Denial of service in Trend Micro Virus Scan API (VSAPI) Engine

> Attackers can cause denial of service or system freeze in Trend Micro VSAPI and ATSE by submitting specially crafted files.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Mar 2021
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f392-jc49-593j

## What is CVE-2021-25252?

CVE-2021-25252 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Trendmicro Apex One, published on 3 Mar 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Trend Micro's Virus Scan API (VSAPI) and Advanced Threat Scan Engine (ATSE) - are vulnerable to a memory exhaustion vulnerability that may lead to denial-of-service or system freeze if exploited by an attacker using a specially crafted file.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-25252?

It affects 19 products.


Products: Trendmicro Apex Central, Trendmicro Apex One, Trendmicro Cloud Edge, Trendmicro Control Manager, Trendmicro Deep Discovery Analyzer, Trendmicro Deep Discovery Email Inspector, Trendmicro Deep Discovery Inspector, Trendmicro Deep Security, Trendmicro Interscan Messaging Security Virtual Appliance, Trendmicro Interscan Web Security Virtual Appliance, Trendmicro Officescan, Trendmicro Portal Protect, Trendmicro Safe Lock, Trendmicro Scanmail, Trendmicro Scanmail for Ibm Domino, Trendmicro Serverprotect, Trendmicro Serverprotect for Network Appliance Filers, Trendmicro Serverprotect for Storage, Trendmicro Worry-Free Business Security.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-25252?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-25252 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-25252 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-25252 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Trendmicro Apex One

- [CVE-2022-26871](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-26871/): Trend Micro Apex Central Arbitrary File Upload (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-69258](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-69258/): Code injection in Trend Micro Apex Central (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-49219](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49219/): Deserialization in Trend Micro Apex Central (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-49220](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49220/): Deserialization in Trend Micro Apex Central (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-52324](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52324/): File upload in Trend Micro Apex Central (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-25252 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-25252 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Trendmicro Apex One, published on 3 Mar 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-25252 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Trendmicro Apex One. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25252/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25252/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25252
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25252
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-25252

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25252/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.