CVE-2021-22204: ExifTool Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2021-11-17
EPSS: 100.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2021-04-23 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-94

Description

Improper neutralization of user data in the DjVu file format in ExifTool versions 7.44 and up allows arbitrary code execution when parsing the malicious image

Affected products

Debian Linux: 9.0, 10.0
Exiftool: from 7.44 before 12.24 — fixed in 12.24
Fedoraproject Fedora: 32, 33, 34

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Exiftool 12.24. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/162558/ExifTool-DjVu-ANT-Perl-Injection.html
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/164768/GitLab-Unauthenticated-Remote-ExifTool-Command-Injection.html
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/164994/GitLab-13.10.2-Remote-Code-Execution.html
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/167038/ExifTool-12.23-Arbitrary-Code-Execution.html
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/05/09/1
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/05/10/5
https://github.com/exiftool/exiftool/commit/cf0f4e7dcd024ca99615bfd1102a841a25dde031#diff-fa0d652d10dbcd246e6b1df16c1e992931d3bb717a7e36157596b76bdadb3800
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cves/-/blob/master/2021/CVE-2021-22204.json
https://hackerone.com/reports/1154542
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/05/msg00018.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DDKDLJLBTBBR66OOPXSXCG2PQRM5KCZL/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/F6UOBPU3LSHAPRRJNISNVXZ5DSUIALLV/

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