Security advisory
mongo-express is a web-based MongoDB admin interface, written with Node.js and express. 1: As mentioned in this issue: https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/issues/577, when the content of a cell grows larger than supported size, clicking on a row will show full document unescaped, however this needs admin interaction on cell. 2: Data cells identified as media will be rendered as media, without being sanitized. Example of different renders: image, audio, video, etc. As an example of type 1 attack, an unauthorized user who only can send a large amount of data in a field of a document may use a payload with embedded javascript. This could send an export of a collection to the attacker without even an admin knowing. Other types of attacks such as dropping a database\collection are possible.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2021-21422
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 11:32 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
mongo-express is a web-based MongoDB admin interface, written with Node.js and express. 1: As mentioned in this issue: https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/issues/577, when the content of a cell grows larger than supported size, clicking on a row will show full document unescaped, however this needs admin interaction on cell. 2: Data cells identified as media will be rendered as media, without being sanitized. Example of different renders: image, audio, video, etc. As an example of type 1 attack, an unauthorized user who only can send a large amount of data in a field of a document may use a payload with embedded javascript. This could send an export of a collection to the attacker without even an admin knowing. Other types of attacks such as dropping a database\collection are possible.
osv:CVE-2021-21422
Complete source record
{
"id": "7289924128973437788fe0c4e65104b36676d5b1cd934a93b05c632730902d3d",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-21422",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2021-21422",
"summary": "mongo-express is a web-based MongoDB admin interface, written with Node.js and express. 1: As mentioned in this issue: https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/issues/577, when the content of a cell grows larger than supported size, clicking on a row will show full document unescaped, however this needs admin interaction on cell. 2: Data cells identified as media will be rendered as media, without being sanitized. Example of different renders: image, audio, video, etc. As an example of type 1 attack, an unauthorized user who only can send a large amount of data in a field of a document may use a payload with embedded javascript. This could send an export of a collection to the attacker without even an admin knowing. Other types of attacks such as dropping a database\\collection are possible.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2021-21422",
"products": [],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2021-21422",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2021-21422",
"GHSA-7p8h-86p5-wv3p"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "7d365141deadbd38fa961cd835ce68eab5731494"
},
{
"fixed": "f5e0d4931f856f032f22664b5e5901d5950cfd4b"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:mongo-express_project:mongo-express:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "0.54.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"range": [
{
"fixed": "f5e0d4931f856f032f22664b5e5901d5950cfd4b"
}
],
"source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
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"v0.53.0",
"v0.52.2",
"v0.52.1",
"v0.52.0",
"v0.51.2",
"v0.51.1",
"v0.51.0",
"v0.50.0",
"v0.49.0",
"v0.48.1",
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"v0.37.0",
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"v0.17.0",
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"v0.16.0",
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"v0.14.1",
"v0.14.0",
"v0.13.0",
"v0.12.0",
"v0.11.3",
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"v0.11.1",
"v0.11.0",
"v0.10.0",
"v0.9.0",
"v0.8.1",
"v0.8.0",
"v0.7.1",
"v0.7.0",
"v0.6.0",
"v0.5.0",
"v0.4.0",
"v0.3.4",
"v0.3.3",
"v0.3.2",
"v0.3.1",
"v0.3.0",
"v0.2.3",
"v0.2.2",
"v0.2.1"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2021-21422.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-20T10:54:28.728078908Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/commit/f5e0d4931f856f032f22664b5e5901d5950cfd4b",
"https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/issues/577",
"https://github.com/mongo-express/mongo-express/security/advisories/GHSA-7p8h-86p5-wv3p"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:a:mongo-express_project:mongo-express:1.0.0:alpha1:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:a:mongo-express_project:mongo-express:1.0.0:alpha3:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "mongo-express_project:mongo-express",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "1.0.0-alpha1"
},
{
"last_affected": "1.0.0-alpha1"
},
{
"introduced": "1.0.0-alpha3"
},
{
"last_affected": "1.0.0-alpha3"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
]
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2021-21422",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 385429,
"published_at": "2021-06-21T19:15:07.947+00:00"
}