How severe is CVE-2021-29425?

CVE-2021-29425 has a CVSS score of 4.8/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-29425?

CVE-2021-29425 affects the following packages: commons-io:commons-io (Maven), com.cosium.vet:vet (Maven), com.diamondq.common:common-thirdparty.jcasbin (Maven), com.liferay:com.liferay.sass.compiler.jsass (Maven), com.virjar:ratel-api (Maven), net.hasor:cobble-lang (Maven), org.apache.commons:commons-io (Maven), org.apache.servicemix.bundles:org.apache.servicemix.bundles.commons-io (Maven), and 2 more. Ecosystems affected: Maven.

How do I fix CVE-2021-29425?

Update commons-io:commons-io to 2.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-29425 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-29425 in my Maven dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-29425 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.

Is CVE-2021-29425 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2021-29425, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-29425?

CVE-2021-29425 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 10.5%, 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-2021-29425?

CVE-2021-29425 is classified as Improper Input Validation (CWE-20), Path Traversal (CWE-22). 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-2021-29425 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-29425 was published on April 13, 2021 and was last updated on October 24, 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

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2021-29425 — commons-io

MEDIUM

CVE-2021-29425 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.8) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in commons-io:commons-io. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for commons-io:commons-io — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Path Traversal and Improper Input Validation in Apache Commons IO

Also known asGHSA-gwrp-pvrq-jmwv

Published

Apr 13, 2021

Updated

Oct 24, 2026

Affected

10 pkgs

Patched

2 / 10

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Nov 4, 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-2021-29425.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

10.5%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

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

10 pkgs affected

☕commons-io:commons-io☕com.cosium.vet:vet☕com.diamondq.common:common-thirdparty.jcasbin☕com.liferay:com.liferay.sass.compiler.jsass☕com.virjar:ratel-api☕net.hasor:cobble-lang☕org.apache.commons:commons-io☕org.apache.servicemix.bundles:org.apache.servicemix.bundles.commons-io+2 more

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

In Apache Commons IO before 2.7, When invoking the method FileNameUtils.normalize with an improper input string, like "//../foo", or "\..\foo", the result would be the same value, thus possibly providing access to files in the parent directory, but not further above (thus "limited" path traversal), if the calling code would use the result to construct a path value.

Affected Packages

10 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
☕Maven	`commons-io:commons-io`	all versions	2.7`commons-io:commons-io:2.7`
☕Maven	`com.cosium.vet:vet`	≥ 1.0	No fix
☕Maven	`com.diamondq.common:common-thirdparty.jcasbin`	all versions	No fix
☕Maven	`com.liferay:com.liferay.sass.compiler.jsass`	all versions	No fix
☕Maven	`com.virjar:ratel-api`	≥ 1.0.0	No fix
☕Maven	`net.hasor:cobble-lang`	≥ 4.4.1	No fix

Affected Products

60 products · 136 configurations

Application

commons ioapache

5 versions

2.22.32.42.52.6

debian linuxdebian

1 version

9.0

Application

active iq unified managernetapp

all

Application

access manageroracle

3 versions

11.1.2.3.012.2.1.3.012.2.1.4.0

Application

agile engineering data managementoracle

1 version

6.2.1.0

Application

agile product lifecycle managementoracle

1 version

9.3.6

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

In Apache Commons IO before 2.7, When invoking the method FileNameUtils.…

issues.apache.orgNVDSep 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for commons-io:commons-io, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update commons-io:commons-io to 2.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-29425 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.

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

While the apache-commons-io package included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Maven App Stream contains the vulnerable code, it is not used in any way by Maven or other packages in this module. This package is not an API component of Maven, thus the affected code can not be reached in any supported scenario.

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
EAP 7.3.9 release	`commons-io`	RHSA-2021:3471
Red Hat AMQ 7.9.0	`commons-io`	RHSA-2021:3700
Red Hat AMQ Streams 1.8.0	`commons-io`	RHSA-2021:3225
Red Hat EAP-XP 2.0.0 via EAP 7.3.x base	`commons-io`	RHSA-2021:3516
Red Hat Fuse 7.10	`commons-io`	RHSA-2021:5134
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform	`commons-io/commons-io:2.10.0.redhat-00001`	RHSA-2021:3660
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 6	`eap7-apache-commons-io-0:2.10.0-1.redhat_00001.1.el6eap`	RHSA-2021:3466
Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 7	`eap7-apache-commons-io-0:2.10.0-1.redhat_00001.1.el7eap`	RHSA-2021:3467

Frequently Asked Questions

In Apache Commons IO before 2.7, When invoking the method FileNameUtils.normalize with an improper input string, like "//../foo", or "\\..\foo", the result would be the same value, thus possibly providing access to files in the parent directory, but not further above (thus "limited" path traversal), if the calling code would use the result to construct a path value.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2021-29425 — commons-io

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

Description

Affected Packages

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

Fixing This On Your OS

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2021-29425 in your dependencies?