How severe is CVE-2021-43849?

CVE-2021-43849 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-43849?

CVE-2021-43849 affects the following packages: cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2021-43849?

Update cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio to 5.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-43849 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-43849 in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio. 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-2021-43849 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-2021-43849?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2021-43849 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-2021-43849 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2021-43849 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-2021-43849?

CVE-2021-43849 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.3%, placing it in the 25th 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.

When was CVE-2021-43849 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-43849 was published on December 23, 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-2021-43849: cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio DoS vulnerabilit…

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk25th percentile+0.26%

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

📦cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio

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

cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio is a plugin provides a single and simple interface for accessing fingerprint APIs on both Android 6+ and iOS. In versions prior to 5.0.1 The exported activity de.niklasmerz.cordova.biometric.BiometricActivity can cause the app to crash. This vulnerability occurred because the activity didn't handle the case where it is requested with invalid or empty data which results in a crash. Any third party app can constantly call this activity with no permission. A 3rd party app/attacker using event listener can continually stop the app from working and make the victim unable to open it. Version 5.0.1 of the cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio doesn't export the activity anymore and is no longer vulnerable. If you want to fix older versions change the attribute android:exported in plugin.xml to false. Please upgrade to version 5.0.1 as soon as possible.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio`	all versions	5.0.1

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio. 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 cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio to 5.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-43849 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-2021-43849 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-2021-43849. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

cordova-plugin-fingerprint-aio is a plugin provides a single and simple interface for accessing fingerprint APIs on both Android 6+ and iOS. In versions prior to 5.0.1 The exported activity `de.niklasmerz.cordova.biometric.BiometricActivity` can cause the app to crash. This vulnerability occurred because the activity didn't handle the case where it is requested with invalid or empty data which results in a crash. Any third party app can constantly call this activity with no permission. A 3rd party app/attacker using event listener can continually stop the app from working and make the victim u

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2021-43849 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2021-43849 across npm dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

CVE-2021-43849