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)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2021-29425?

O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-29425 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

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 10.2%, placing it in the 95th 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 August 27, 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 reference exists, 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

Aug 27, 2026

Affected

10 pkgs

Patched

2 / 10

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Sep 22, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

10.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Moderate Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs95th percentile — riskier than 95% 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-2021-29425 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 377,636 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

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

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
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-2021-29425 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.

Tailored to CVE-2021-29425. 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 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

Is CVE-2021-29425 in your dependencies?

O3 Security finds CVE-2021-29425 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