CVE-2021-33294 Denial of service in n/a

Medium 5.5 Published 18 Jul 2023 Updated 14 Oct 2026

Attackers can cause a denial of service via infinite loop in elfutils by providing a crafted file.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2021-33294?

CVE-2021-33294 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Jul 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

In elfutils 0.183, an infinite loop was found in the function handle_symtab in readelf.c .Which allows attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via crafted file.

Weakness: CWE-835

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-33294?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Elfutils Project Elfutils.

How do I fix CVE-2021-33294?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2021-33294 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2021-33294 exists.

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-33294, GHSA-827x-xjfm-cw2c, OESA-2023-1444, OESA-2023-1445, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-33294.