What is CVE-2021-46461?

CVE-2021-46461 is a critical-severity vulnerability in nginx Njs, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2022-02-14.

How severe is CVE-2021-46461?

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

Buffer overflow in nginx Njs

CVE-2021-46461

njs through 0.7.0, used in NGINX, was discovered to contain an out-of-bounds array access via njs_vmcode_typeof in /src/njs_vmcode.c.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2022-02-14 · 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: 0.031 (87.4th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 87th percentile — 87.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.031 · newest: 0.031 · change: +0.000

Affected products

nginx Njs

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

github.com/nginx/njs/issues/450 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/nginx/njs/commit/d457c9545e7e71ebb5c0479eb16b9d33175855e2 (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20220303-0007/ (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-46461?: CVE-2021-46461 is a critical-severity vulnerability in nginx Njs, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2022-02-14.
How severe is CVE-2021-46461?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.