CVE-2021-27292 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability in ua-parser-js. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for ua-parser-js — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in ua-parser-js
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-27292 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 376,715 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
ua-parser-jsnpmDescription
ua-parser-js >= 0.7.14, fixed in 0.7.24, uses a regular expression which is vulnerable to denial of service. If an attacker sends a malicious User-Agent header, ua-parser-js will get stuck processing it for an extended period of time.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ua-parser-js | ≥ 0.7.14&&< 0.7.24 | 0.7.24npm install ua-parser-js@0.7.24 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ua-parser-js, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ua-parser-js to 0.7.24 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-27292 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-27292 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-27292. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
While some components do package a vulnerable version of ua-parser-js, access to them requires OpenShift OAuth credentials and hence have been marked with a Low impact. This applies to the following products: - OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) - OpenShift ServiceMesh (OSSM) - Red Hat OpenShift Jaeger (RHOSJ) - Red…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift Logging 5.1 | openshift-logging/kibana6-rhel8:v6.8.1-108 | RHSA-2022:0226 |
| OpenShift Logging 5.2 | openshift-logging/kibana6-rhel8:v6.8.1-110 | RHSA-2022:0230 |
| OpenShift Logging 5.3 | openshift-logging/kibana6-rhel8:v6.8.1-109 | RHSA-2022:0227 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.8 | openshift4/ose-console:v4.8.0-202107010336.p0.git.188a490.assembly.stream | RHSA-2021:2438 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Jaeger 1.24 | distributed-tracing/jaeger-agent-rhel8:1.24.0-9 | RHSA-2021:3024 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-27292 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-27292 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.