CVE-2021-30179 — dubbo
CRITICALCVE-2021-30179 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in org.apache.dubbo:dubbo. A fix is available for org.apache.dubbo:dubbo — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Apache Dubbo
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
org.apache.dubbo:dubbo☕com.alibaba:dubboReal-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
Apache Dubbo prior to 2.6.9 and 2.7.9 by default supports generic calls to arbitrary methods exposed by provider interfaces. These invocations are handled by the GenericFilter which will find the service and method specified in the first arguments of the invocation and use the Java Reflection API to make the final call. The signature for the $invoke or $invokeAsync methods is Ljava/lang/String;[Ljava/lang/String;[Ljava/lang/Object; where the first argument is the name of the method to invoke, the second one is an array with the parameter types for the method being invoked and the third one is an array with the actual call arguments. In addition, the caller also needs to set an RPC attachment specifying that the call is a generic call and how to decode the arguments. The possible values are: - true - raw.return - nativejava - bean - protobuf-json An attacker can control this RPC attachment and set it to nativejava to force the java deserialization of the byte array located in the third argument.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.dubbo:dubbo | ≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.7.10 | 2.7.10org.apache.dubbo:dubbo:2.7.10 |
| ☕Maven | com.alibaba:dubbo | ≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.6.9 | 2.6.9com.alibaba:dubbo:2.6.9 |
Affected Products
dubboapacheDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.dubbo:dubbo, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.dubbo:dubbo to 2.7.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-30179 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-30179 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.