What is CVE-2021-35938?

CVE-2021-35938 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Rpm, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 6.7/10. Published 2022-08-25.

How severe is CVE-2021-35938?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.7 out of 10.

Is CVE-2021-35938 known to be exploited?

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

Vulnerability in Rpm

CVE-2021-35938

A symbolic link issue was found in rpm. It occurs when rpm sets the desired permissions and credentials after installing a file. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to exchange the original file with a symbolic link to a security-critical file and escalate their privileges on the system. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.

Published 2022-08-25 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.7 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (41.5th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 41st percentile — 41.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: -0.000

Affected products

Rpm
Fedoraproject Fedora — versions 34
Red Hat Enterprise Linux — versions 7.0, 8.0, 9.0
Rpm — versions Fixed in rpm v4.18.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-59 — Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)
bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-35938 (Vendor Advisory)
rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.18.0 (Release Notes)
github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/1919 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/commit/25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf… (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/202210-22 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-35938?: CVE-2021-35938 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Rpm, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 6.7/10. Published 2022-08-25.
How severe is CVE-2021-35938?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.7 out of 10.
Is CVE-2021-35938 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.