What is CVE-2021-38172?

CVE-2021-38172 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Debian Perm, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2022-02-05.

How severe is CVE-2021-38172?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Debian Perm

CVE-2021-38172

perM 0.4.0 has a Buffer Overflow related to strncpy. (Debian initially fixed this in 0.4.0-7.)

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2022-02-05 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.018 (78.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 78th percentile — 78.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.018 · newest: 0.018 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Debian Perm — versions 0.4.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-120 — Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow)

References

packages.qa.debian.org/p/perm.html (Patch, Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)
bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi (Exploit, Vendor Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-med/2021/08/msg00016.html (Mailing List, Vendor Advisory)
tracker.debian.org/pkg/perm (Patch, Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)
salsa.debian.org/med-team/perm/-/commits/master/ (Patch, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-38172?: CVE-2021-38172 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Debian Perm, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2022-02-05.
How severe is CVE-2021-38172?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.