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Fencer Vulns
high 7.9

CVE-2020-26238 json

Critical vulnerability found in cron-utils

published 2020-11-24 5 y ago modified 2026-07-08 4 mo ago also GHSA-pfj3-56hm-jwq5 , EUVD-2020-1466

cvss
7.9
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
4.2%
EPSS 4.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 91%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Cron-utils is a Java library to parse, validate, migrate crons as well as get human readable descriptions for them. In cron-utils before version 9.1.3, a template Injection vulnerability is present. This enables attackers to inject arbitrary Java EL expressions, leading to unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability. Only projects using the @Cron annotation to validate untrusted Cron expressions are affected. This issue was patched in version 9.1.3.

Patch / fix

  • maven com.cronutils:cron-utils 9.1.3
  • cron-utils_project cron-utils 9.1.3

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-26238 updated cvss 8.1

cron-utils: template injection allows attackers to inject arbitrary Java EL expressions leading to remote code execution

  • Red Hat Integration Camel K 1 cron-utils Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 1 cron-utils
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Integration
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:3205
  • Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:3207
  • Red Hat Text-Only RHOAR
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1004

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

4.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/jmrozanec/cron-utils/security/advisories/GHSA-pfj3-56hm-jwq5 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • github.com https://github.com/jmrozanec/cron-utils/issues/461 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
GitHub 3.1 7.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven com.cronutils:cron-utils
<9.1.3
9.1.3

Affected products

  • jmrozanec cron-utils

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.