CVE-2021-3840 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) CWE-427 vulnerability in antilles-tools. A fix is available for antilles-tools — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Antilles Dependency Confusion Vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-3840 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
antilles-toolsReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Potential Impact:
Remote code execution.
Scope of Impact:
Open-source project specific.
Summary Description:
A dependency confusion vulnerability was reported in the Antilles open-source software prior to version 1.0.1 that could allow for remote code execution during installation due to a package listed in requirements.txt not existing in the public package index (PyPi). MITRE classifies this weakness as an Uncontrolled Search Path Element (CWE-427) in which a private package dependency may be replaced by an unauthorized package of the same name published to a well-known public repository such as PyPi. The configuration has been updated to only install components built by Antilles, removing all other public package indexes. Additionally, the antilles-tools dependency has been published to PyPi.
Mitigation Strategy for Customers (what you should do to protect yourself):
Remove previous versions of Antilles as a precautionary measure and Update to version 1.0.1 or later.
Acknowledgement:
The Antilles team thanks Kotko Vladyslav for reporting this issue.
References:
https://github.com/lenovo/Antilles/commit/c7b9c5740908b343aceefe69733d9972e64df0b9
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | antilles-tools | all versions | 1.0.1pip install --upgrade 'antilles-tools==1.0.1' |
Affected Products
antilleslenovoDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for antilles-tools, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update antilles-tools to 1.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-3840 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-3840 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.