# CVE-2021-41119: DoS vulnerabiliity in wire-server json parser

> Attackers can cause denial of service on Wire server backends by sending crafted objects that trigger quadratic time parsing due to hash collisions.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 13 Apr 2022
- **Updated:** 22 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-phxv-pffh-fq2r, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-41119

## What is CVE-2021-41119?

CVE-2021-41119 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in wireapp wire-server, published on 13 Apr 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Wire-server is the system server for the wire back-end services. Releases prior to v2022-03-01 are subject to a denial of service attack via a crafted object causing a hash collision. This collision causes the server to spend at least quadratic time parsing it which can lead to a denial of service for a heavily used server. The issue has been fixed in wire-server 2022-03-01 and is already deployed on all Wire managed services. On premise instances of wire-server need to be updated to 2022-03-01, so that their backends are no longer affected. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-41119?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wire Wire-Server.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-41119?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-41119 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-41119 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2021-41119 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in wireapp wire-server

- [CVE-2022-23610](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23610/): Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature in wire-server (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2021-41100](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-41100/): Account takeover when having only access to a user's short lived token in wire-server (high 7.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-41119 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-41119 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in wireapp wire-server, published on 13 Apr 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2021-41119 exists.

Affected product: wireapp wire-server. 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-2021-41119/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-41119/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-41119
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41119
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-41119

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-41119/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.