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CVE-2021-36740

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a...

6.5 MediumFix available

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Exploit likelihood

1.60%Up 0.6 points since Jul 15, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

NVD Score used 6.5

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
CVE-2021-36740
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
CVSS 2.0
6.4 MediumAV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
Weakness
CWE-444
Updated
2026-11-02
CVE List No score

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
CVE-2021-36740
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2021-23330 No score

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
EUVD-2021-23330
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-8vxj-gx32-j925 6.5

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a...

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
GHSA-8vxj-gx32-j925
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Weakness
CWE-444
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2021-36740 6.5

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
ALPINE-CVE-2021-36740
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 6.5

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
CVE-2021-36740
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
Show 10 moreShow less
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2021-36740 6.5

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2021-36740
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVOESA-2021-1374 6.5

varnish security update

This is Varnish Cache, a web application accelerator also known as a caching HTTP reverse proxy. You install it in front of any server that speaks HTTP and configure it to cache the contents. Varnish Cache is really, really fast. It typically speeds up delivery with a factor of 300 - 1000x, depending on your architecture.

Security Fix(es):

A flaw was found in Varnish. The Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. As a result, this flaw allows the information on the Varnish cache to be poisoned. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability.(CVE-2021-36740)

Record
OESA-2021-1374
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVRHSA-2021:2988 8.1

Red Hat Security Advisory: varnish:6 security update

Record
RHSA-2021:2988
CVSS 3.1
8.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVRHSA-2021:2993 8.1

Red Hat Security Advisory: rh-varnish6-varnish security update

Record
RHSA-2021:2993
CVSS 3.1
8.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVRLSA-2021:2988 8.1

Important: varnish:6 security update

Varnish Cache is a high-performance HTTP accelerator. It stores web pages in memory so web servers don't have to create the same web page over and over again, giving the website a significant speed up.

Security Fix(es):

  • varnish: HTTP/2 request smuggling attack via a large Content-Length header for a POST request (CVE-2021-36740)

For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Record
RLSA-2021:2988
CVSS 3.1
8.1 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2021-36740 6.5

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2021-36740
CVSS 3.1
6.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVBIT-varnish-2021-36740 No score

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8.

Record
BIT-varnish-2021-36740
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVMGASA-2021-0387 No score

Updated varnish packages fix a security vulnerability

Varnish Cache, with HTTP/2 enabled, allows request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. This affects Varnish Enterprise 6.0.x before 6.0.8r3, and Varnish Cache 5.x and 6.x before 6.5.2, 6.6.x before 6.6.1, and 6.0 LTS before 6.0.8 (CVE-2021-36740).

Record
MGASA-2021-0387
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2022:0148-1 No score

Security update for varnish

This update for varnish fixes the following issues:

varnish was updated to release 7.1.0 [boo#1195188] [CVE-2022-23959]

  • VCL: It is now possible to assign a BLOB value to a BODY variable, in addition to STRING as before.
  • VMOD: New STRING strftime(TIME time, STRING format) function for UTC formatting.

Update to release 6.6.1

  • CVE-2021-36740: Fix an HTTP/2.0 request smuggling vulnerability. [boo#1188470]

Update to release 6.6.0:

  • The ban_cutoff parameter now refers to the overall length of the ban list, including completed bans, where before only non-completed (“active”) bans were counted towards ban_cutoff.
  • Body bytes accounting has been fixed to always represent the number of body bytes moved on the wire, exclusive of protocol-specific overhead like HTTP/1 chunked encoding or HTTP/2 framing.
  • The connection close reason has been fixed to properly report SC_RESP_CLOSE where previously only SC_REQ_CLOSE was reported.
  • Unless the new validate_headers feature is disabled, all newly set headers are now validated to contain only characters allowed by RFC7230.
  • The filter_re, keep_re and get_re functions from the bundled cookie vmod have been changed to take the VCL_REGEX type. This implies that their regular expression arguments now need to be literal, not e.g. string.
  • The interface for private pointers in VMODs has been changed, the VRT backend interface has been changed, many filter (VDP/VFP) related signatures have been changed, and the stevedore API has been changed. (Details thereto, see online changelog.)

Update to release 6.5.1

  • Bump the VRT_MAJOR_VERSION number defined in the vrt.h

Update to release 6.5.0

  • PRIV_TOP is now thread-safe to support parallel ESI implementations.
  • varnishstat's JSON output format (-j option) has been changed.
  • Behavior for 304-type responses was changed not to update the Content-Encoding response header of the stored object.
  • Update Git-Web repository link

Update to release 6.4.0

  • The MAIN.sess_drop counter is gone.
  • backend 'none' was added for 'no backend'.
  • The hash algorithm of the hash director was changed, so backend selection will change once only when upgrading.
  • It is now possible for VMOD authors to customize the connection pooling of a dynamic backend.
  • For more, see changes.rst.

Update to release 6.3.2

  • Fix a denial of service vulnerability when using the proxy protocol version 2.

Update to release 6.3.0

  • The Host: header is folded to lower-case in the builtin_vcl.
  • Improved performance of shared memory statistics counters.
  • Synthetic objects created from vcl_backend_error {} now replace existing stale objects as ordinary backend fetches would (for details see changes.rst)
Record
openSUSE-SU-2022:0148-1
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUSN-5474-1 No score

varnish vulnerabilities

It was dicovered that Varnish Cache did not clear a pointer between the handling of one client request and the next request within the same connection. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information. (CVE-2019-20637)

It was discovered that Varnish Cache could have an assertion failure when a TLS termination proxy uses PROXY version 2. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to restart the daemon and cause a performance loss. (CVE-2020-11653)

It was discovered that Varnish Cache allowed request smuggling and VCL authorization bypass via a large Content-Length header for a POST request. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information. (CVE-2021-36740)

It was discovered that Varnish Cache allowed request smuggling for HTTP/1 connections. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information. (CVE-2022-23959)

Record
USN-5474-1
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
varnish
Alpine:v3.11
before 6.5.2-r0
6.5.2-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.12
before 6.5.2-r0
6.5.2-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.13
before 6.5.2-r0
6.5.2-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.14
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.15
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.16
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.17
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.18
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.19
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.20
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
Show 43 moreShow less
Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
varnish
Alpine:v3.21
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.22
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.23
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Alpine:v3.24
before 6.6.1-r0
6.6.1-r0
varnish
Bitnami
5.0.0 up to 5.2.2, 6.1.0 up to 6.6.1
5.2.26.6.1
varnish
Debian:12
before 6.5.2-1
6.5.2-1
varnish
Debian:13
before 6.5.2-1
6.5.2-1
varnish
Debian:10
before 6.1.1-1+deb10u3, plus listed versions
6.1.1-16.1.1-1+deb10u16.1.1-1+deb10u2
6.1.1-1+deb10u3
varnish
Debian:11
before 6.5.1-1+deb11u2, plus listed versions
6.5.1-16.5.1-1+deb11u1
6.5.1-1+deb11u2
varnish
Mageia:8
before 6.5.1-1.1.mga8
6.5.1-1.1.mga8
varnish
openEuler:20.03-LTS-SP1
before 6.0.0-9.oe1
6.0.0-9.oe1
varnish
openEuler:20.03-LTS-SP2
before 6.0.0-9.oe1
6.0.0-9.oe1
varnish
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.1::appstream
before 0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.1.0+11974+ea5ba4f1
0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.1.0+11974+ea5ba4f1
varnish-devel
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.1::appstream
before 0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.1.0+11974+ea5ba4f1
0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.1.0+11974+ea5ba4f1
varnish-docs
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.1::appstream
before 0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.1.0+11974+ea5ba4f1
0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.1.0+11974+ea5ba4f1
varnish-modules
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.1::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
varnish-modules-debuginfo
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.1::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
varnish-modules-debugsource
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.1::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
varnish
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.2::appstream
before 0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.2.0+11973+a748eca7
0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.2.0+11973+a748eca7
varnish-devel
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.2::appstream
before 0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.2.0+11973+a748eca7
0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.2.0+11973+a748eca7
varnish-docs
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.2::appstream
before 0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.2.0+11973+a748eca7
0:6.0.2-2.module+el8.2.0+11973+a748eca7
varnish-modules
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.2::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
varnish-modules-debuginfo
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.2::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
varnish-modules-debugsource
Red Hat:rhel_eus:8.2::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
0:0.15.0-4.module+el8+2481+4078e9d2
varnish
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream
before 0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.4.0+11921+1a6539fc.1
0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.4.0+11921+1a6539fc.1
varnish-devel
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream
before 0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.4.0+11921+1a6539fc.1
0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.4.0+11921+1a6539fc.1
varnish-docs
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream
before 0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.4.0+11921+1a6539fc.1
0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.4.0+11921+1a6539fc.1
varnish-modules
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+6843+b3b42fcc
0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+6843+b3b42fcc
varnish-modules-debuginfo
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+6843+b3b42fcc
0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+6843+b3b42fcc
varnish-modules-debugsource
Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream
before 0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+6843+b3b42fcc
0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+6843+b3b42fcc
rh-varnish6-varnish
Red Hat:rhel_software_collections:3::el7
before 0:6.0.8-2.el7
0:6.0.8-2.el7
rh-varnish6-varnish-devel
Red Hat:rhel_software_collections:3::el7
before 0:6.0.8-2.el7
0:6.0.8-2.el7
rh-varnish6-varnish-docs
Red Hat:rhel_software_collections:3::el7
before 0:6.0.8-2.el7
0:6.0.8-2.el7
rh-varnish6-varnish-libs
Red Hat:rhel_software_collections:3::el7
before 0:6.0.8-2.el7
0:6.0.8-2.el7
rh-varnish6-varnish-modules
Red Hat:rhel_software_collections:3::el7
before 0:0.15.0-7.el7
0:0.15.0-7.el7
rh-varnish6-varnish-modules-debuginfo
Red Hat:rhel_software_collections:3::el7
before 0:0.15.0-7.el7
0:0.15.0-7.el7
varnish
Rocky Linux:8
before 0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.3.0+179+20b582cc
0:6.0.6-2.module+el8.3.0+179+20b582cc
varnish-modules
Rocky Linux:8
before 0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+179+20b582cc
0:0.15.0-5.module+el8.3.0+179+20b582cc
varnish
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
before 6.2.1-2ubuntu0.1, plus listed versions
6.1.1-16.2.1-2
6.2.1-2ubuntu0.1
varnish
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS
before 5.2.1-1ubuntu0.1, plus listed versions
5.0.0-7.15.2.1-1
5.2.1-1ubuntu0.1
varnish
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS
before 6.6.1-1ubuntu0.2, plus listed versions
6.5.2-16.6.1-1
6.6.1-1ubuntu0.2
varnish
SUSE:Package Hub 15 SP3
before 7.1.0-bp153.2.3.1
7.1.0-bp153.2.3.1
varnish
openSUSE:Leap 15.3
before 7.1.0-bp153.2.3.1
7.1.0-bp153.2.3.1

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
aliasesEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2021-36740 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.5) in Varnish-cache Varnish Cache, published July 14, 2021. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.60%, the 75th percentile. Fixed in varnish 6.5.2-r0.

References

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