What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-21285: Docker daemon crash during image pull of malicious image

• Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 3.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2021-02-02 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-400

Description

In Docker before versions 9.03.15, 20.10.3 there is a vulnerability in which pulling an intentionally malformed Docker image manifest crashes the dockerd daemon. Versions 20.10.3 and 19.03.15 contain patches that prevent the daemon from crashing.

Affected products

• Debian Linux: 10.0
• Docker Engine: before 19.03.15; from 20.0.0 before 20.10.3 — fixed in 19.03.15, 20.10.3
• E-Series SANtricity OS Controller Software 11.x: from 11.0 through 11.60.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Docker Engine 19.03.15, 20.10.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://docs.docker.com/engine/release-notes/#20103
• https://github.com/moby/moby/commit/8d3179546e79065adefa67cc697c09d0ab137d30
• https://github.com/moby/moby/releases/tag/v19.03.15
• https://github.com/moby/moby/releases/tag/v20.10.3
• https://github.com/moby/moby/security/advisories/GHSA-6fj5-m822-rqx8
• https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202107-23
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210226-0005/
• https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4865
• https://docs.docker.com/engine/release-notes/#20103
• https://github.com/moby/moby/commit/8d3179546e79065adefa67cc697c09d0ab137d30
• https://github.com/moby/moby/releases/tag/v19.03.15
• https://github.com/moby/moby/releases/tag/v20.10.3

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