Vulnerability Database

383,371

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2021-39184 — electronjs / electron

Missing Authorization

Electron is a framework for writing cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. A vulnerability in versions prior to 11.5.0, 12.1.0, and 13.3.0 allows a sandboxed renderer to request a "thumbnail" image of an arbitrary file on the user's system. The thumbnail can potentially include significant parts of the original file, including textual data in many cases. Versions 15.0.0-alpha.10, 14.0.0, 13.3.0, 12.1.0, and 11.5.0 all contain a fix for the vulnerability. Two workarounds aside from upgrading are available. One may make the vulnerability significantly more difficult for an attacker to exploit by enabling contextIsolation in one's app. One may also disable the functionality of the createThumbnailFromPath API if one does not need it.

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Medium
  • Score: 6.8
  • AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVSS v2:

  • Severity: Medium
  • Score: 5
  • AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Software Affected versions
electronjs / electron >= 13.0.0, < 13.3.0
electronjs / electron >= 12.0.0, < 12.1.0
electronjs / electron >= 10.1.0, < 11.5.0
Node.js icon electron < 11.5.0
Node.js icon electron >= 12.0.0, < 12.1.0
Node.js icon electron >= 13.0.0, < 13.3.0
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta1
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta10
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta11
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta12
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta13
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta14
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta15
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta16
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta17
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta18
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta19
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta2
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta20
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta21
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta22
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta23
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta24
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta25
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta3
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta4
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta5
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta6
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta7
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta8
electronjs / electron = 14.0.0-beta9
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha1
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha2
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha3
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha4
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha5
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha6
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha7
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha8
electronjs / electron = 15.0.0-alpha9

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.