What is CVE-2021-21979?

CVE-2021-21979 is a high-severity vulnerability in Bitnami Containers, classified under Use of Hard-coded Credentials. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2021-03-03.

How severe is CVE-2021-21979?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.

Is CVE-2021-21979 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Vulnerability in Bitnami Containers

CVE-2021-21979

In Bitnami Containers, all Laravel container versions prior to: 6.20.0-debian-10-r107 for Laravel 6, 7.30.1-debian-10-r108 for Laravel 7 and 8.5.11-debian-10-r0 for Laravel 8, the file /tmp/app/.env is generated at the time that the docker image bitnami/laravel was built, and the value of APP_KEY is fixed under certain conditions. This value is crucial for the security of the application and must be randomly generated per Laravel installation. If your application's encryption key is in the hands of a malicious party, that party could craft cookie values using the encryption key and exploit vulnerabilities inherent to PHP object serialization / unserialization, such as calling arbitrary class methods within your application.

Published 2021-03-03 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.3 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.006 (49.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 49th percentile — 49.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.006 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Bitnami Containers — versions 6.19.0-debian-10-r0, 7.29.0-debian-10-r0, 7.30.0-debian-10-r0
Bitnami Containers — versions All Laravel container versions prior to: 6.20.0-debian-10-r107 for Laravel 6, 7.30.1-debian-10-r108 for Laravel 7 and 8.5.11-debian-10-r0 for Laravel 8

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-798 — Use of Hard-coded Credentials

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

github.com/bitnami/bitnami-docker-laravel/issues/139 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-21979?: CVE-2021-21979 is a high-severity vulnerability in Bitnami Containers, classified under Use of Hard-coded Credentials. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2021-03-03.
How severe is CVE-2021-21979?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2021-21979 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.