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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2021-29505 in the critical feed json

XStream is vulnerable to a Remote Command Execution attack

published 2021-05-18 5 y ago modified 2026-10-07 32 d ago also GHSA-7chv-rrw6-w6fc , EUVD-2021-0996

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
77.2%
EPSS 77.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.5%
public exploits
0
none known, plus a Nuclei check

Summary

XStream is software for serializing Java objects to XML and back again. A vulnerability in XStream versions prior to 1.4.17 may allow a remote attacker has sufficient rights to execute commands of the host only by manipulating the processed input stream. No user who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types is affected. The vulnerability is patched in version 1.4.17.

Patch / fix

  • maven com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream 1.4.17
  • xstream xstream 1.4.17
  • libxstream-java Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.4.15-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-29505

  • xstream RHEL 7 1.3.1-14.el7_9
  • xstream-javadoc RHEL 7 1.3.1-14.el7_9

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:2683

  • xstream SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP2, Manager Server Module 4.2 +1 more 1.4.17-3.11.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:1995-1

  • xstream openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.4.18-1.1
  • xstream openSUSE Leap 15.3 1.4.17-3.11.2
  • xstream openSUSE Leap 15.2 1.4.17-lp152.2.9.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10592-1openSUSE-SU-2021:1995-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0911-1

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-2021-29505 updated cvss 7.5

XStream: remote command execution attack by manipulating the processed input stream

  • Red Hat BPM Suite 6 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 1 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat JBoss BRMS 5 xstream Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat JBoss Data Grid 7 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6 xstream Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works 6 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat JBoss SOA Platform 5 xstream
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
show 8 more
  • Red Hat Data Grid 8.3.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:0520
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-14.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-14.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-14.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-14.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-14.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-14.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-14.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-14.el7_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:2683
  • Red Hat Fuse 7.11
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:5532
  • Red Hat Integration
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:4918
  • Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:4767
  • Red Hat RHDM 7.12.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:0297
  • Red Hat RHPAM 7.12.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:0296
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 jenkins Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 jenkins
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
32 d ago

Exploit prediction

77.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream
<1.4.17
1.4.17

Affected products

  • x-stream xstream

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code
  • CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data
  • 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.