CVE-2021-42521

HIGH

Published Aug 25, 20223y ago · Modified Jun 17, 20262w ago

7.5 CVSS 3.1

High

Published Aug 25, 2022 3y ago

Last Modified Jun 17, 2026 2w ago

Description

There is a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in VTK before 9.2.5, and it lies in IO/Infovis/vtkXMLTreeReader.cxx. The vendor didn't check the return value of libxml2 API 'xmlDocGetRootElement', and try to dereference it. It is unsafe as the return value can be NULL and that NULL pointer dereference may crash the application.

CVSS Details

Base Score

7.5

Exploitability

3.9

Impact

3.6

Vector string

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector Network

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required None

User Interaction None

Scope Unchanged

Confidentiality None

Integrity None

Availability High

Threat Intelligence

No active exploitation signals — not in CISA KEV and no EPSS score yet.

Exploit & Patch Status

Public Exploit Known

No Patch Available

Weaknesses 2

CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption Resource Mgmt

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference Memory Safety

Affected Products 1

Vendor	Product	Version	Range
vtk	vtk	*	≤9.0.0

References 3

discourse.vtk.org https://discourse.vtk.org/t/vtk-9-2-5-is-out/10549
gitlab.kitware.com https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/issues/17818

ExploitIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
lists.fedoraproject.org https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PCTMSAAVP4BW2HTZLDWMGKZ2WEC5OFLK/

Remediation

No remediation data recorded yet

Check vendor advisories and the NVD entry for patch availability.