How severe is CVE-2021-25907?

CVE-2021-25907 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-25907?

CVE-2021-25907 affects the following packages: containers (crates.io). Ecosystems affected: crates.io.

How do I fix CVE-2021-25907?

Update containers to 0.9.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-25907 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-25907 in my crates.io dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for containers, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-25907 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.

Is CVE-2021-25907 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2021-25907, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-25907?

CVE-2021-25907 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.6%, placing it in the 74th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2021-25907?

CVE-2021-25907 is classified as CWE-415 (CWE-415). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2021-25907 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-25907 was published on August 25, 2021 and was last updated on November 8, 2023. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🦀

🦀 crates.io

Not in CISA KEV

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2021-25907 — containers

CRITICAL

CVE-2021-25907 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-415 vulnerability in containers. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for containers — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Double free in containers

Also known asRUSTSEC-2021-0010

Published

Aug 25, 2021

Updated

Nov 8, 2023

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 11, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs74th percentile — riskier than 74% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2021-25907 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

🦀containers

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Upon panic in a user-provided function f, fn mutate() & fn mutate2 drops twice a same object.

Affected versions of this crate did not guard against double drop while temporarily duplicating an object's ownership with ptr::read().

Dropping a same object can result in memory corruption.

The flaw was corrected in version "0.9.11" by fixing the code to abort upon panic.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🦀crates.io	`containers`	all versions	0.9.11`cargo update -p containers --precise 0.9.11`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

containerscontainers_project

< 0.9.11

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

An issue was discovered in the containers crate before 0.9.11 for Rust. …

rustsec.orgNVDFeb 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for containers, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update containers to 0.9.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-25907 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Upon panic in a user-provided function f, fn mutate() & fn mutate2 drops twice a same object. Affected versions of this crate did not guard against double drop while temporarily duplicating an object's ownership with ptr::read(). Dropping a same object can result in memory corruption. The flaw was corrected in version "0.9.11" by fixing the code to abort upon panic.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2021-25907 in your dependencies?

Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.

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CVSS Score

9.8/10CVSS v3 base

Vector breakdown

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Raw vector

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

CWE Classification

CWE-415CWE-415

Weaponization

No known public exploit tooling found.

OpenSSF Scorecard

Package health score

containers.rs

3.0/10

Code-Review0/10

Maintained0/10

Branch-Protection0/10

Assessed Oct 5, 2026

Timeline

First exploit

Feb 2, 2021

Disclosed

Aug 25, 2021

Last updated

Nov 8, 2023

Identifiers

CVE-2021-25907

RUSTSEC-2021-0010

References

Advisorynvd.nist.gov Webgithub.com Webrustsec.org Packagegithub.com

Related vulnerabilities

This CVE is critical severity — higher than any of the other 8 CVEs with CWE-415 (highest there: high).

CVE-2026-46690GHSA-vfvv-c25p-m7mmCVE-2026-6654GHSA-j8cj-hw74-64jvGHSA-3632-54q8-m96xGHSA-7mcq-f592-pf7vCVE-2025-4574CVE-2023-37365Browse all CWE-415

Provenance

Sources

OSV.devNVDFIRST.org (EPSS)

Last verifiedNov 8, 2023

CVE-2021-25907 — containers

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

Description

Affected Packages

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2021-25907 in your dependencies?