CVE-2024-21534 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Code Injection vulnerability in org.webjars.npm:jsonpath-plus. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.webjars.npm:jsonpath-plus — see the affected versions and patch details below.
JSONPath Plus Remote Code Execution (RCE) Vulnerability
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-21534.
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-2024-21534 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 377,166 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
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
jsonpath-plusnpmDescription
Versions of the package jsonpath-plus before 10.0.7 are vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) due to improper input sanitization. An attacker can execute aribitrary code on the system by exploiting the unsafe default usage of vm in Node.
Note:
There were several attempts to fix it in versions 10.0.0-10.1.0 but it could still be exploited using different payloads
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.webjars.npm:jsonpath-plus | all versions | No fix |
| 📦npm | jsonpath-plus | all versions | 10.2.0npm install jsonpath-plus@10.2.0 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.webjars.npm:jsonpath-plus, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
No patched version of org.webjars.npm:jsonpath-plus has shipped for CVE-2024-21534 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
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-2024-21534 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-21534. 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 Hat's initial impact rating of critical has been downgraded to low. While the vulnerable code is technically still present within Red Hat products, there are no code paths in affected products which allow exploitation. As such, the impact to Red Hat products is low. Each of the products listed have multiple…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces 3 Containers | devspaces/code-rhel8:3.17-19 | RHSA-2024:10236 |
| Red Hat Developer Hub 1.6 | rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9:1.6.0-1745956724 | RHSA-2025:7626 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-21534 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-21534 across Maven, npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.