How severe is CVE-2021-41249?

CVE-2021-41249 has a CVSS score of 4.7/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-41249?

CVE-2021-41249 affects the following packages: graphql-playground-react (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2021-41249?

Update graphql-playground-react to 1.7.28 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-41249 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-41249 in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for graphql-playground-react. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-41249 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2021-41249?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2021-41249 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2021-41249 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2021-41249 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-41249?

CVE-2021-41249 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.2%, placing it in the 64th 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-2021-41249?

CVE-2021-41249 is classified as Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2021-41249 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-41249 was published on November 4, 2021 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CVE-2021-41249: graphql-playground-react Remote Code Execution…

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk64th percentile+0.82%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

📦graphql-playground-react

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

Description

GraphQL Playground is a GraphQL IDE for development of graphQL focused applications. All versions of graphql-playground-react older than [email protected] are vulnerable to compromised HTTP schema introspection responses or schema prop values with malicious GraphQL type names, exposing a dynamic XSS attack surface that can allow code injection on operation autocomplete. In order for the attack to take place, the user must load a malicious schema in graphql-playground. There are several ways this can occur, including by specifying the URL to a malicious schema in the endpoint query parameter. If a user clicks on a link to a GraphQL Playground installation that specifies a malicious server, arbitrary JavaScript can run in the user's browser, which can be used to exfiltrate user credentials or other harmful goals. If you are using graphql-playground-react directly in your client app, upgrade to version 1.7.28 or later.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`graphql-playground-react`	all versions	1.7.28

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for graphql-playground-react. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update graphql-playground-react to 1.7.28 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-41249 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2021-41249 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2021-41249. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

GraphQL Playground is a GraphQL IDE for development of graphQL focused applications. All versions of graphql-playground-react older than [email protected] are vulnerable to compromised HTTP schema introspection responses or schema prop values with malicious GraphQL type names, exposing a dynamic XSS attack surface that can allow code injection on operation autocomplete. In order for the attack to take place, the user must load a malicious schema in graphql-playground. There are several ways this can occur, including by specifying the URL to a malicious schema in the endpoint quer

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2021-41249 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2021-41249 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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CVE-2021-41249