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Critical

Security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVCVE: CVE-2021-39167

OpenZepplin is a library for smart contract development. In affected versions a vulnerability in TimelockController allowed an actor with the executor role to escalate privileges. Further details about the vulnerability will be disclosed at a later date. As a workaround revoke the executor role from accounts not strictly under the team's control. We recommend revoking all executors that are not also proposers. When applying this mitigation, ensure there is at least one proposer and executor remaining.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2021-39167
Confirmed fixed CVEs
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Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 08:49 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

CVE-2021-39167

core-osv · Original source

Published 27 Aug 2021, 00:15 UTC

OpenZepplin is a library for smart contract development. In affected versions a vulnerability in TimelockController allowed an actor with the executor role to escalate privileges. Further details about the vulnerability will be disclosed at a later date. As a workaround revoke the executor role from accounts not strictly under the team's control. We recommend revoking all executors that are not also proposers. When applying this mitigation, ensure there is at least one proposer and executor remaining.

osv:CVE-2021-39167
Complete source record
{
  "id": "091f0d8df388ee926ce50be4e78a8fc8a7179ba3d6288e5e1843ab922b395f9f",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-39167",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2021-39167",
    "summary": "OpenZepplin is a library for smart contract development. In affected versions a vulnerability in TimelockController allowed an actor with the executor role to escalate privileges. Further details about the vulnerability will be disclosed at a later date. As a workaround revoke the executor role from accounts not strictly under the team's control. We recommend revoking all executors that are not also proposers. When applying this mitigation, ensure there is at least one proposer and executor remaining.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2021-39167",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "critical",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2021-39167",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2021-39167",
        "GHSA-fg47-3c2x-m2wr"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/openzeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "6be5ffe54fc8982b7c1d0f45d4cb7bbd313107cd"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "8e0296096449d9b1cd7c5631e917330635244c37"
                },
                {
                  "introduced": "a673994de5eba4305cefb8ae98ea9ad37a43efaa"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "6edb6dd1ca43d05a762d84c688116b3327f5e490"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "cec4f2ef57495d8b1742d62846da212515d99dd5"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:openzeppelin:contracts:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "3.3.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "3.4.2"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:openzeppelin:contracts:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "4.0.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "4.3.1"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "cec4f2ef57495d8b1742d62846da212515d99dd5"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2021-39167.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-24T10:50:25.176752024Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/security/advisories/GHSA-fg47-3c2x-m2wr",
        "https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#431",
        "https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-contracts/commit/cec4f2ef57495d8b1742d62846da212515d99dd5"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "unresolved_ranges": [
          {
            "cpes": [
              "cpe:2.3:a:openzeppelin:contracts:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*"
            ],
            "vendor_product": "openzeppelin:contracts",
            "extracted_events": [
              {
                "range": [
                  {
                    "introduced": "3.3.0"
                  },
                  {
                    "fixed": "3.4.2"
                  },
                  {
                    "introduced": "4.0.0"
                  },
                  {
                    "fixed": "4.3.1"
                  }
                ],
                "source": "CPE_RANGE"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2021-39167",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 442140,
  "published_at": "2021-08-27T00:15:06.97+00:00"
}