CVE-2019-10173 — xstream
CRITICALCVE-2019-10173 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Code Injection vulnerability in com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 95.0% (100th percentile). A fix is available for com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Deserialization of Untrusted Data and Code Injection in xstream
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-10173 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,415 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstreamReal-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
It was found that xstream API version 1.4.10 before 1.4.11 introduced a regression for a previous deserialization flaw. If the security framework has not been initialized, it may allow a remote attacker to run arbitrary shell commands when unmarshalling XML or any supported format. e.g. JSON. (regression of CVE-2013-7285)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream | ≥ 1.4.10&&< 1.4.11 | 1.4.11com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream:1.4.11 |
Affected Products
banking platformoraclebusiness activity monitoringoraclecommunications billing and revenue management elastic charging engineoraclecommunications diameter signaling routeroraclecommunications unified inventory managementoracleendeca information discovery studiooracleDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream to 1.4.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2019-10173 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Data Grid 7.3.3 | xstream | RHSA-2020:0727 |
| Red Hat Fuse 6.3 | xstream | RHSA-2019:4352 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.5.0 | xstream | RHSA-2019:3892 |
| Red Hat JBoss BPMS 7.4 | xstream | RHSA-2019:1823 |
| Red Hat JBoss BRMS 7.4 | xstream | RHSA-2019:1822 |
| Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.3 | rh-sso7-keycloak | RHSA-2020:0445 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-10173 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.