What is CVE-2021-38599?

CVE-2021-38599 is a high-severity vulnerability in Wal-G Project, classified under Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2021-08-12.

How severe is CVE-2021-38599?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Wal-G Project

CVE-2021-38599

WAL-G before 1.1, when a non-libsodium build (e.g., one of the official binary releases published as GitHub Releases) is used, silently ignores the libsodium encryption key and uploads cleartext backups. This is arguably a Principle of Least Surprise violation because "the user likely wanted to encrypt all file activity."

Published 2021-08-12 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.008 (56.1th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 56th percentile — 56.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.008 · newest: 0.008 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Wal-G Project

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-754 — Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions

References

github.com/wal-g/wal-g/pull/1062 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/wal-g/wal-g/commit/cadf598e1c2a345915a21a44518c5a4d5401e2e3 (Patch, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-38599?: CVE-2021-38599 is a high-severity vulnerability in Wal-G Project, classified under Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2021-08-12.
How severe is CVE-2021-38599?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.