CVE-2021-4294 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-208 vulnerability in github.com/openshift/osin. A fix is available for github.com/openshift/osin — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenShift OSIN vulnerable to Observable Timing Discrepancy
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-2021-4294 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 377,238 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
github.com/openshift/osinReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A vulnerability was found in OpenShift OSIN. It has been classified as problematic. This affects the function ClientSecretMatches/CheckClientSecret. The manipulation of the argument secret leads to observable timing discrepancy. The name of the patch is 8612686d6dda34ae9ef6b5a974e4b7accb4fea29. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue. The associated identifier of this vulnerability is VDB-216987.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/openshift/osin | all versions | 1.0.2-0.20210113124101-8612686d6ddago get github.com/openshift/osin@v1.0.2-0.20210113124101-8612686d6dda |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/openshift/osin, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/openshift/osin to 1.0.2-0.20210113124101-8612686d6dda or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-4294 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-2021-4294 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-4294. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 | openshift4/ose-oauth-server-rhel8:v4.12.0-202405091536.p0.g0c434f4.assembly.stream.el8 | RHSA-2024:2782 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 | openshift4/ose-oauth-server-rhel8:v4.13.0-202404200313.p0.geb54be2.assembly.stream.el8 | RHSA-2024:2047 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 | openshift4/ose-oauth-server-rhel8:v4.14.0-202310201027.p0.g37df9ff.assembly.stream | RHSA-2023:5006 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-4294 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-4294 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.