XStream is vulnerable to a Remote Command Execution attack

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Summary

CVECVE-2021-21345
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2021-03-23 00:15:12 UTC
Updated2026-10-07 19:17:23 UTC
DescriptionXStream is a Java library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In XStream before version 1.4.16, there is a vulnerability which may allow a remote attacker who has sufficient rights to execute commands of the host only by manipulating the processed input stream. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. If you rely on XStream's default blacklist of the Security Framework, you will have to use at least version 1.4.16.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 9.9 CRITICAL from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS: 0.723240000 probability, percentile 0.994260000 (date 2026-10-07)

Problem Types: CWE-94 | CWE-502 | CWE-78 | CWE-94 CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') | CWE-502 CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary9.9CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1[email protected]Secondary5.8MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
3.1CNADECLARED5.8MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N
2.0[email protected]Primary6.5AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 Breakdown

Access Vector
Network
Access Complexity
Low
Authentication
Single
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Application Apache Activemq All All All All
Application Apache Activemq 5.16.0 All All All
Application Apache Activemq 5.16.1 All All All
Application Apache Jmeter All All All All
Operating System Debian Debian Linux 10.0 All All All
Operating System Debian Debian Linux 11.0 All All All
Operating System Debian Debian Linux 9.0 All All All
Operating System Fedoraproject Fedora 33 All All All
Operating System Fedoraproject Fedora 34 All All All
Operating System Fedoraproject Fedora 35 All All All
Application Netapp Oncommand Insight - All All All
Application Oracle Banking Enterprise Default Management 2.10.0 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Enterprise Default Management 2.12.0 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Platform 2.12.0 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Platform 2.4.0 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Platform 2.7.1 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Platform 2.9.0 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Virtual Account Management 14.2.0 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Virtual Account Management 14.3.0 All All All
Application Oracle Banking Virtual Account Management 14.5.0 All All All
Application Oracle Business Activity Monitoring 11.1.1.9.0 All All All
Application Oracle Business Activity Monitoring 12.2.1.3.0 All All All
Application Oracle Business Activity Monitoring 12.2.1.4.0 All All All
Application Oracle Communications Billing And Revenue Management Elastic Charging Engine 12.0.0.3.0 All All All
Application Oracle Communications Policy Management 12.5.0 All All All
Application Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management 7.3.2 All All All
Application Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management 7.3.4 All All All
Application Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management 7.3.5 All All All
Application Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management 7.4.0 All All All
Application Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management 7.4.1 All All All
Application Oracle Peoplesoft Enterprise Peopletools 8.58 All All All
Application Oracle Peoplesoft Enterprise Peopletools 8.59 All All All
Application Oracle Retail Xstore Point Of Service 16.0.6 All All All
Application Oracle Retail Xstore Point Of Service 17.0.4 All All All
Application Oracle Retail Xstore Point Of Service 18.0.3 All All All
Application Oracle Retail Xstore Point Of Service 19.0.2 All All All
Application Oracle Webcenter Portal 11.1.1.9.0 All All All
Application Oracle Webcenter Portal 12.2.1.3.0 All All All
Application Oracle Webcenter Portal 12.2.1.4.0 All All All
Application Xstream Xstream All All All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA X-stream Xstream affected < 1.4.16 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
March 2021 XStream Vulnerabilities in NetApp Products | NetApp Product Security af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 security.netapp.com Third Party Advisory
lists.apache.org/thread.html/r9ac71b047767205aa22e3a08cb33f3e0586de6b2fac48b42... af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 lists.apache.org Issue Tracking, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
Oracle Critical Patch Update Advisory - October 2021 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.oracle.com Third Party Advisory
XStream - Security Aspects af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 x-stream.github.io Mitigation, Third Party Advisory
Oracle Critical Patch Update Advisory - July 2021 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.oracle.com Third Party Advisory
[SECURITY] Fedora 35 Update: xstream-1.4.18-2.fc35 - package-announce - Fedora Mailing-Lists af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 lists.fedoraproject.org Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
[SECURITY] [DLA 2616-1] libxstream-java security update af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 lists.debian.org Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
XStream is vulnerable to a Remote Command Execution attack · Advisory · x-stream/xstream · GitHub af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 github.com Third Party Advisory
Oracle Critical Patch Update Advisory - January 2022 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.oracle.com Patch, Vendor Advisory
Oracle Critical Patch Update Advisory - April 2021 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.oracle.com Patch, Third Party Advisory
XStream - CVE-2021-21345 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 x-stream.github.io Exploit, Third Party Advisory
[SECURITY] Fedora 33 Update: xstream-1.4.18-2.fc33 - package-announce - Fedora Mailing-Lists af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 lists.fedoraproject.org Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
[SECURITY] Fedora 34 Update: xstream-1.4.18-2.fc34 - package-announce - Fedora Mailing-Lists af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 lists.fedoraproject.org Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
Debian -- Security Information -- DSA-5004-1 libxstream-java af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.debian.org Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
lists.apache.org/thread.html/r8244fd0831db894d5e89911ded9c72196d395a90ae655414... af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 lists.apache.org Issue Tracking, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
XStream - Change History af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 x-stream.github.io Release Notes, Third Party Advisory
[SECURITY] Fedora 35 Update: xstream-1.4.18-2.fc35 - package-announce - Fedora Mailing-Lists MITRE lists.fedoraproject.org
[SECURITY] Fedora 34 Update: xstream-1.4.18-2.fc34 - package-announce - Fedora Mailing-Lists MITRE lists.fedoraproject.org
[SECURITY] Fedora 33 Update: xstream-1.4.18-2.fc33 - package-announce - Fedora Mailing-Lists MITRE lists.fedoraproject.org
Pony Mail! MITRE lists.apache.org
MLIST:[jmeter-dev] 20210406 [GitHub] [jmeter] sseide opened a new pull request #655: update x-stream to 1.4.16 (from 1.4.15) MITRE lists.apache.org
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Legacy QID Mappings

  • 159162 Oracle Enterprise Linux Security Update for xstream (ELSA-2021-1354)
  • 178511 Debian Security Update for libxstream-java (DLA 2616-1)
  • 178889 Debian Security Update for libxstream-java (DSA 5004-1)
  • 178890 Debian Security Update for libxstream-java (DSA 5004-1)
  • 180144 Debian Security Update for libxstream-java (CVE-2021-21345)
  • 198361 Ubuntu Security Notification for XStream vulnerabilities (USN-4943-1)
  • 239260 Red Hat Update for xstream (RHSA-2021:1354)
  • 257081 CentOS Security Update for xstream (CESA-2021:1354)
  • 281980 Fedora Security Update for xstream (FEDORA-2021-d894ca87dc)
  • 281981 Fedora Security Update for xstream (FEDORA-2021-fbad11014a)
  • 352367 Amazon Linux Security Advisory for xstream: ALAS2-2021-1645
  • 375827 XStream Arbitrary Code Execution And Multiple vulnerabilities
  • 377045 Alibaba Cloud Linux Security Update for xstream (ALINUX2-SA-2021:0024)
  • 730155 McAfee Web Gateway Multiple Vulnerabilities(WP-3580, WP-3656, WP-3815, WP-3878, WP-3882, WP-3934,WP-3935, WP-3936, WP-3999)
  • 750094 SUSE Enterprise Linux Security Update for xstream (SUSE-SU-2021:1840-1)
  • 750177 OpenSUSE Security Update for xstream (openSUSE-SU-2021:0832-1)
  • 750773 OpenSUSE Security Update for xstream (openSUSE-SU-2021:1840-1)
  • 980130 Java (maven) Security Update for com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream (GHSA-hwpc-8xqv-jvj4)

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