CVE-2021-3622 Denial of service in hivex

Medium 4.3 Published 23 Dec 2021 Updated 3 Aug 2024

An attacker can cause a stack overflow and denial of service in the hivex library by providing a specially crafted Windows Registry hive file.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2021-3622?

CVE-2021-3622 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 23 Dec 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

A flaw was found in the hivex library. This flaw allows an attacker to input a specially crafted Windows Registry (hive) file, which would cause hivex to recursively call the _get_children() function, leading to a stack overflow. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.

Weakness: CWE-400

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-3622?

It affects 4 products.

Linux distribution packages (35)

`hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ocaml-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ocaml-hivex-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`perl-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`python-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ruby-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ocaml-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ocaml-hivex-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`perl-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`python-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ruby-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ocaml-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ocaml-hivex-devel` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`perl-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`python-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`ruby-hivex` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::workstation	All versions	`0:1.3.10-6.12.el7_9`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.0	All versions	`1.3.14-5.6.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1	All versions	`1.3.14-5.6.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2	All versions	`1.3.14-5.6.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP3	All versions	`1.3.14-5.6.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP2	All versions	`1.3.14-5.6.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP3	All versions	`1.3.14-5.6.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5	All versions	`1.3.10-5.7.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5	All versions	`1.3.10-5.7.1`
`hivex` SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5	All versions	`1.3.10-5.7.1`
`hivex` openSUSE:Leap 15.2	All versions	`1.3.14-lp152.4.6.1`
`hivex` openSUSE:Leap 15.3	All versions	`1.3.14-5.6.1`

Products include Fedoraproject Fedora, Redhat Enterprise Linux, Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation, Redhat Hivex.

How do I fix CVE-2021-3622?

Apply the vendor's patch.

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-2021-3622 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-3622 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Fedoraproject Fedora vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as AZL-7096, CLSA-2025-1738170241, CLSA-2025-1738170437, DEBIAN-CVE-2021-3622, GHSA-rc2r-2mcx-6h65, MGASA-2021-0528 and 8 more.