CVE-2021-29481Client side sessions should not allow unencrypted storage
- 6.5MediumCVSS base score
- 0.46%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 60% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Ratpack is a toolkit for creating web applications. In versions prior to 1.9.0, the default configuration of client side sessions results in unencrypted, but signed, data being set as cookie values. This means that if something sensitive goes into the session, it could be read by something with access to the cookies. For this to be a vulnerability, some kind of sensitive data would need to be stored in the session and the session cookie would have to leak. For example, the cookies are not configured with httpOnly and an adjacent XSS vulnerability within the site allowed capture of the cookies. As of version 1.9.0, a securely randomly generated signing key is used. As a workaround, one may supply an encryption key, as per the documentation recommendation.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 3 months later
· 3 months later
Published
- 3 years later
· 3 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.46% · top 60% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.5.
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Mavenio.ratpack:ratpack-sessionGHSA-phj8-4cq3-794g (opens in a new tab)
References
References2
- https://github.com/ratpack/ratpack/security/advisories/GHSA-phj8-4cq3-794g (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/ratpack/ratpack/pull/1590 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2021-1484 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-phj8-4cq3-794g (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2021-29481)Record last updated .