CVE-2021-20291

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: April 1, 2021 at 05:49 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:33 AM UTC
5 products affected across 3 vendorsFedoraEnterprise LinuxOpenShift Container Platform

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Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 2%

Description

A deadlock vulnerability was found in 'github.com/containers/storage' in versions before 1.28.1. When a container image is processed, each layer is unpacked using `tar`. If one of those layers is not a valid `tar` archive this causes an error leading to an unexpected situation where the code indefinitely waits for the tar unpacked stream, which never finishes. An attacker could use this vulnerability to craft a malicious image, which when downloaded and stored by an application using containers/storage, would then cause a deadlock leading to a Denial of Service (DoS).

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 1.28.1
Affected range stops below 1.28.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-667

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