CVE-2021-4214 Memory corruption in libpng

What is CVE-2021-4214?

CVE-2021-4214 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 24 Aug 2022. 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

A heap overflow flaw was found in libpngs' pngimage.c program. This flaw allows an attacker with local network access to pass a specially crafted PNG file to the pngimage utility, causing an application to crash, leading to a denial of service.

Weakness: CWE-787, CWE-120

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-4214?

It affects 3 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Libpng Libpng, Netapp Ontap Select Deploy Administration Utility.

How do I fix CVE-2021-4214?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-4214 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

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

Is CVE-2021-4214 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-4214 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 DEBIAN-CVE-2021-4214, GHSA-v3c8-fhq3-xvvh.