How severe is CVE-2021-21348?

CVE-2021-21348 has a CVSS score of 7.5/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-21348?

CVE-2021-21348 affects the following packages: com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream (Maven). Ecosystems affected: Maven.

How do I fix CVE-2021-21348?

Update com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream to 1.4.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-21348 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-21348 in my Maven dependencies?

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.

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-21348 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.

Is CVE-2021-21348 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2021-21348 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-21348?

CVE-2021-21348 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 13.8%, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score warrants monitoring and prompt remediation.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2021-21348?

CVE-2021-21348 is classified as Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400), Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2021-21348 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-21348 was published on March 23, 2021 and was last updated on October 9, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

☕

☕ Maven

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2021-21348 — xstream

HIGH

CVE-2021-21348 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 13.8% (96th percentile). A fix is available for com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream — see the affected versions and patch details below.

XStream is vulnerable to an attack using Regular Expression for a Denial of Service (ReDos)

Also known asBIT-activemq-2021-21348GHSA-56p8-3fh9-4cvq

Published

Mar 23, 2021

Updated

Oct 9, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 11, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2021-21348.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

13.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Moderate Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs96th percentile — riskier than 96% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2021-21348 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

☕com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream

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

Impact

The vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to occupy a thread that consumes maximum CPU time and will never return. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types.

Patches

If you rely on XStream's default blacklist of the Security Framework, you will have to use at least version 1.4.16.

Workarounds

See workarounds for the different versions covering all CVEs.

References

See full information about the nature of the vulnerability and the steps to reproduce it in XStream's documentation for CVE-2021-21348.

Credits

The vulnerability was discovered and reported by threedr3am.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Open an issue in XStream
Contact us at XStream Google Group

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
☕Maven	`com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream`	all versions	1.4.16`com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream:1.4.16`

Affected Products

16 products · 39 configurations

Application

activemqapache

< 5.15.14

2 versions

5.16.05.16.1

Application

jmeterapache

< 5.5

range

debian linuxdebian

3 versions

9.010.011.0

fedorafedoraproject

3 versions

333435

Application

oncommand insightnetapp

all

Application

banking enterprise default managementoracle

2 versions

2.10.02.12.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
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 1.4.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-21348 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.

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 HatModerate

OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) delivers Jenkins LTS package with bundled XStream library. Due to JEP-200 [1] and JEP-228 [2] Jenkins projects, OCP Jenkins package is not affected by this flaw. [1] https://github.com/jenkinsci/jep/blob/master/jep/200/README.adoc [2]…

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat Data Grid 8.2.0	`xstream`	RHSA-2021:2139
Red Hat Fuse 7.10	`xstream`	RHSA-2021:5134
Red Hat Integration	see advisory	RHSA-2021:4918
Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 2	see advisory	RHSA-2021:4767
RHDM 7.11.0	`xstream`	RHSA-2021:2476
RHPAM 7.11.0	`xstream`	RHSA-2021:2475

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact The vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to occupy a thread that consumes maximum CPU time and will never return. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. ### Patches If you rely on XStream's default blacklist of the [Security Framework](https://x-stream.github.io/security.html#framework), you will have to use at least version 1.4.16. ### Workarounds See [workarounds](https://x-stream.github.io/security.html#workaround) for the different versions covering all CVEs. ### R

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2021-21348 in your dependencies?

Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works