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Fencer Intel
high 8.5

CVE-2021-39139 json

XStream is vulnerable to an Arbitrary Code Execution attack

published 5y ago modified last mo. also GHSA-64xx-cq4q-mf44 , EUVD-2021-1590

cvss
8.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
4.5%
EPSS 4.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 91%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to load and execute arbitrary code from a remote host only by manipulating the processed input stream. A user is only affected if using the version out of the box with JDK 1.7u21 or below. However, this scenario can be adjusted easily to an external Xalan that works regardless of the version of the Java runtime. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. XStream 1.4.18 uses no longer a blacklist by default, since it cannot be secured for general purpose.

Patch / fix

  • maven com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream 1.4.18
  • xstream xstream 1.4.18
  • libxstream-java Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.4.18-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-39139

  • libxstream-java Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 1.4.11.1-1+deb10u4build0.18.04.1
  • libxstream-java Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1.4.11.1-1ubuntu0.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2021-39139

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • xstream RHEL 7 1.3.1-16.el7_9
  • xstream-javadoc RHEL 7 1.3.1-16.el7_9

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:3956

  • xstream SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP2, Manager Server Module 4.2 +1 more 1.4.18-3.14.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:3476-1

  • xstream openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.4.18-1.1
  • xstream openSUSE Leap 15.2 1.4.18-lp152.2.12.1
  • xstream openSUSE Leap 15.3 1.4.18-3.14.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10592-1openSUSE-SU-2021:1401-1openSUSE-SU-2021:3476-1

Is CVE-2021-39139 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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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-2021-39139 updated cvss 8.5

xstream: Arbitrary code execution via unsafe deserialization of Xalan xsltc.trax.TemplatesImpl

  • Red Hat BPM Suite 6 xstream
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 1 xstream
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6 xstream Red Hat JBoss BRMS 5 xstream Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 xstream Red Hat JBoss Data Grid 7 xstream Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6 xstream Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6 xstream
    +2 more products
    Red Hat JBoss Fuse Service Works 6 xstream Red Hat JBoss SOA Platform 5 xstream
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Data Grid 8.3.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:0520
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-16.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-16.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-16.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-16.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-16.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-16.el7_9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) xstream 1.3.1-16.el7_9, xstream-javadoc 1.3.1-16.el7_9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:3956
  • 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
show 2 more
  • Red Hat RHPAM 7.12.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:0296
  • Red Hat Fuse 7 xstream 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
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
last mo.

Exploit prediction

4.54% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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 8.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream
<1.4.18
1.4.18

Affected products

  • x-stream xstream

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data
  • CWE-434 Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

References

Sources

Fencer Intel 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.