CVE-2021-3717 — wildfly-core-parent
HIGHCVE-2021-3717 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-552 vulnerability in org.wildfly.core:wildfly-core-parent. A fix is available for org.wildfly.core:wildfly-core-parent — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Wildfly-Core user account mismanagement
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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-2021-3717 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 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.wildfly.core:wildfly-core-parentReal-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
A flaw was found in Wildfly. An incorrect JBOSS_LOCAL_USER challenge location when using the elytron configuration may lead to JBOSS_LOCAL_USER access to all users on the machine. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This flaw affects wildfly-core versions prior to 17.0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.wildfly.core:wildfly-core-parent | all versions | 17.0org.wildfly.core:wildfly-core-parent:17.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.wildfly.core:wildfly-core-parent, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.wildfly.core:wildfly-core-parent to 17.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-3717 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-2021-3717 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-3717. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| EAP 7.3.10 GA | wildfly | RHSA-2021:5154 |
| Red Hat EAP-XP 2 via EAP 7.3.x base | wildfly | RHSA-2022:0146 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.11.1 | wildfly | RHSA-2022:8652 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform | org.wildfly.core/wildfly-cli:15.0.5.Final-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2021:4679 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 EUS for RHEL 7 | eap7-resteasy-0:3.0.27-1.Final_redhat_00001.1.ep7.el7 | RHSA-2025:1746 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 6 | eap7-apache-cxf-0:3.3.12-1.redhat_00001.1.el6eap | RHSA-2021:5149 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 7 | eap7-apache-cxf-0:3.3.12-1.redhat_00001.1.el7eap | RHSA-2021:5150 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.3 for RHEL 8 | eap7-apache-cxf-0:3.3.12-1.redhat_00001.1.el8eap | RHSA-2021:5151 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-3717 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-3717 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.