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CVE-2016-6814 — groovy

CRITICAL

CVE-2016-6814 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in org.codehaus.groovy:groovy. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 17.2% (97th percentile). A fix is available for org.codehaus.groovy:groovy — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Groovy

Also known asGHSA-xphj-m9cc-8fmq
Published
Jan 18, 2018
Updated
Jul 8, 2026
Affected
2 pkgs
Patched
2 / 2
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Sep 20, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
17.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Moderate Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs97th percentile — riskier than 97% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2016-6814 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected
☕org.codehaus.groovy:groovy☕org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

When an application with unsupported Codehaus versions of Groovy from 1.7.0 to 2.4.3, Apache Groovy 2.4.4 to 2.4.7 on classpath uses standard Java serialization mechanisms, e.g. to communicate between servers or to store local data, it was possible for an attacker to bake a special serialized object that will execute code directly when deserialized. All applications which rely on serialization and do not isolate the code which deserializes objects were subject to this vulnerability.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.codehaus.groovy:groovy≥ 1.7.0&&< 2.4.82.4.8org.codehaus.groovy:groovy:2.4.8
☕Mavenorg.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all≥ 1.7.0&&< 2.4.82.4.8org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:2.4.8

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.codehaus.groovy:groovy, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update org.codehaus.groovy:groovy to 2.4.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2016-6814 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

  4. How O3 protects you

    O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2016-6814 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to CVE-2016-6814. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatImportant

This issue affects the versions of groovy as shipped with Red Hat Satellite 6.0 and 6.1. Red Hat Satellite 6.2 and later do not ship groovy, as such they are not affected by this vulnerability.

ProductFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7groovy-0:1.8.9-8.el7_4RHSA-2017:2486
Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6.3see advisoryRHSA-2017:0868
Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6.3groovyRHSA-2017:0272
Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6rh-maven33-groovy-0:1.8.9-7.19.el6RHSA-2017:2596
UbuntuCRITICAL
USN-4795-1Ubuntu

Frequently Asked Questions

When an application with unsupported Codehaus versions of Groovy from 1.7.0 to 2.4.3, Apache Groovy 2.4.4 to 2.4.7 on classpath uses standard Java serialization mechanisms, e.g. to communicate between servers or to store local data, it was possible for an attacker to bake a special serialized object that will execute code directly when deserialized. All applications which rely on serialization and do not isolate the code which deserializes objects were subject to this vulnerability.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2016-6814 in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds CVE-2016-6814 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works
CVE-2016-6814: groovy (Critical 9.8) | O3 Security