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CVE-2021-30047 (vsftpd 3.0.3 DoS) Vulnerability: Analysis, Impact, Mitigation

vsftpd has a high vulnerability (CVE-2021-30047).

DKCISSP News DeskHuntress29 Oct 2026, 5:30 am2 min read
CVE-2021-30047 (vsftpd 3.0.3 DoS) Vulnerability: Analysis, Impact, Mitigation
Image courtesy of Huntress. Original report
DKCISSP REPORT

vsftpd has a high vulnerability (CVE-2021-30047).

The affected service is reachable from the network without authentication.

vsftpd may already be doing an ordinary job in your environment while also being reachable from a network an attacker can access.

Anyone running vsftpd 3.0.3 is exposed, and because this is reachable without authentication, exposure doesn't depend on a user doing anything.

What an attacker actually gains: successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute code with the permissions of the affected process.

Being reachable without authentication is what moves this from 'patch eventually' to 'patch now' -- there's no login screen standing between an attacker and the vulnerable code.

This is tracked as CVE-2021-30047 and rated high severity, which is the identifier to use when checking vendor guidance.

The affected versions are 3.0.3, so that's the range to check against your own deployment.

Confirm whether vsftpd 3.0.3 is present anywhere in your asset and software inventory.

No exploitation has been reported yet, but that status can change, so keep watching vendor guidance while you remediate.

What happened

vsftpd has a high vulnerability (CVE-2021-30047).

The affected service is reachable from the network without authentication.

vsftpd may already be doing an ordinary job in your environment while also being reachable from a network an attacker can access.

Who is affected

Anyone running vsftpd 3.0.3 is exposed, and because this is reachable without authentication, exposure doesn't depend on a user doing anything.

Why it matters

What an attacker actually gains: successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute code with the permissions of the affected process.

Being reachable without authentication is what moves this from 'patch eventually' to 'patch now' -- there's no login screen standing between an attacker and the vulnerable code.

Technical details

This is tracked as CVE-2021-30047 and rated high severity, which is the identifier to use when checking vendor guidance.

The affected versions are 3.0.3, so that's the range to check against your own deployment.

What security teams should do

Confirm whether vsftpd 3.0.3 is present anywhere in your asset and software inventory.

No exploitation has been reported yet, but that status can change, so keep watching vendor guidance while you remediate.

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