CVE-2017-1000487 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils. A fix is available for org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OS Command Injection in Plexus-utils
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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-2017-1000487 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 377,238 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utilsReal-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
Plexus-utils before 3.0.16 is vulnerable to command injection because it does not correctly process the contents of double quoted strings.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils | all versions | 3.0.16org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils:3.0.16 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils to 3.0.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2017-1000487 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2017-1000487 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2017-1000487. 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.
This issue affects the versions of plexus-utils as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as well as Red Hat Satellite 6.0 and 6.1. Red Hat Satellite 6.2 and later do not ship plexus-utils, as such they are not affected by this vulnerability. Red Hat Product Security has rated this issue as having Moderate security…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat JBoss A-MQ 6.3 | plexus-utils | RHSA-2018:1322 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2017-1000487 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2017-1000487 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.