CVE-2021-38160 Memory corruption in n/a

What is CVE-2021-38160?

CVE-2021-38160 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 7 Aug 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In drivers/char/virtio_console.c in the Linux kernel before 5.13.4, data corruption or loss can be triggered by an untrusted device that supplies a buf->len value exceeding the buffer size. NOTE: the vendor indicates that the cited data corruption is not a vulnerability in any existing use case; the length validation was added solely for robustness in the face of anomalous host OS behavior

Weakness: CWE-120

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-38160?

It affects 7 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel, Netapp Element Software, Netapp Hci Bootstrap Os, Netapp Hci Management Node, Netapp Solidfire and 1 more.

How do I fix CVE-2021-38160?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2021-38160 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-38160 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

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• CVE-2025-49113 RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data Exploited Critical 9.9
• CVE-2026-24061 GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2025-39682 Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2024-9680 Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.8

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as A-197154898, AZL-6580, DEBIAN-CVE-2021-38160, GHSA-fjw9-4q3j-vpq4, PUB-A-197154898, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-38160.