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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2021-32785

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2021-07-22
  • WeaknessCWE-134

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

mod_auth_openidc is an authentication/authorization module for the Apache 2.x HTTP server that functions as an OpenID Connect Relying Party, authenticating users against an OpenID Connect Provider. When mod_auth_openidc versions prior to 2.4.9 are configured to use an unencrypted Redis cache (`OIDCCacheEncrypt off`, `OIDCSessionType server-cache`, `OIDCCacheType redis`), `mod_auth_openidc` wrongly performed argument interpolation before passing Redis requests to `hiredis`, which would perform it again and lead to an uncontrolled format string bug. Initial assessment shows that this bug does not appear to allow gaining arbitrary code execution, but can reliably provoke a denial of service by repeatedly crashing the Apache workers. This bug has been corrected in version 2.4.9 by performing argument interpolation only once, using the `hiredis` API. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by setting `OIDCCacheEncrypt` to `on`, as cache keys are cryptographically hashed before use when this option is enabled.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2021-07-2222:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-32785?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-32785?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
10.0= 10.0no fix published
Netapp cloud backup
BranchAffectedFixed in
—all versionsno fix published
Openidc mod auth openidcversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.4< 2.4.92.4.9

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • CNACVSS 3.15.3read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.17.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.04.3read 2026-10-23
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-134read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-134read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score2.7 %2026-10-22

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2021-07-22
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-32785?

mod_auth_openidc is an authentication/authorization module for the Apache 2.x HTTP server that functions as an OpenID Connect Relying Party, authenticating users against an OpenID Connect Provider. When mod_auth_openidc versions prior to 2.4.9 are configured to use an unencrypted Redis cache (`OIDCCacheEncrypt off`, `OIDCSessionType server-cache`, `OIDCCacheType redis`), `mod_auth_openidc` wrongly performed argument interpolation before passing Redis requests to `hiredis`, which would perform it again and lead to an uncontrolled format string bug. Initial assessment shows that this bug does not appear to allow gaining arbitrary code execution, but can reliably provoke a denial of service by repeatedly crashing the Apache workers. This bug has been corrected in version 2.4.9 by performing argument interpolation only once, using the `hiredis` API. As a workaround, this vulnerability can be mitigated by setting `OIDCCacheEncrypt` to `on`, as cache keys are cryptographically hashed before use when this option is enabled.

Is CVE-2021-32785 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2021-32785 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.7% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2021-32785?

CVE-2021-32785 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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