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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2021-4209

medium Nessus Plugin ID 224281

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

 - A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in GnuTLS. As Nettle's hash update functions internally call memcpy, providing zero-length input may cause undefined behavior. This flaw leads to a denial of service after authentication in rare circumstances. (CVE-2021-4209)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2021-4209

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-4209

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 224281

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2021_4209.nasl

Version: 1.4

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/5/2025

Updated: 7/24/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.51

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5

Temporal Score: 4.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-4209

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.5

Temporal Score: 6

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:gnutls26, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gnutls-c%2b%2b, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gnutls-dane, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gnutls-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gnutls-utils, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:gnutls, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gnutls-c%2b%2b, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gnutls-dane, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gnutls-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gnutls-utils, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:gnutls

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/24/2022

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-4209