CVE-2021-43113 Command injection in itext7-core

What is CVE-2021-43113?

CVE-2021-43113 is a critical command injection vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 15 Dec 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

iTextPDF in iText 7 and up to (excluding 4.4.13.3) 7.1.17 allows command injection via a CompareTool filename that is mishandled on the gs (aka Ghostscript) command line in GhostscriptHelper.java.

Weakness: CWE-77

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-43113?

4 open source packages ship an affected version, including com.itextpdf:itext7-core and com.itextpdf:itextpdf. It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Itextpdf Itext.

How do I fix CVE-2021-43113?

Upgrade com.itextpdf:itext7-core to 7.1.17 or later.

Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.

Is CVE-2021-43113 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-43113 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

• CVE-2015-3306 ProFTPD Improper Access Control Exploited Critical 10.0
• 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-2021-43113, DLA-3273-1, DSA-5323-1, GHSA-gv87-q66h-4277, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-43113, openSUSE-SU-2024:11980-1.