CVE-2024-49771 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Path Traversal vulnerability in net.sf.mpxj:mpxj. A fix is available for net.sf.mpxj:mpxj — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MPXJ has a Potential Path Traversal Vulnerability
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-2024-49771.
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-2024-49771 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% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
net.sf.mpxj:mpxj.NETnet.sf.mpxj.NETnet.sf.mpxj-for-csharp.NETnet.sf.mpxj-for-vb.NETMPXJ.Net🐍mpxj💎mpxjReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven, NuGet packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
The patch for the historical vulnerability CVE-2020-35460 in MPXJ is incomplete as there is still a possibility that a malicious path could be constructed which would not be picked up by the original fix and allow files to be written to arbitrary locations.
Patches
The issue is addressed in MPXJ version 13.5.1
Workarounds
Do not pass zip files to MPXJ.
References
N/A
Credits
Issue report and patch provided by yyjLF and sprinkle
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | net.sf.mpxj:mpxj | ≥ 8.3.5&&< 13.5.1 | 13.5.1net.sf.mpxj:mpxj:13.5.1 |
| .NETNuGet | net.sf.mpxj | ≥ 8.3.5&&< 13.5.1 | 13.5.1dotnet add package net.sf.mpxj --version 13.5.1 |
| .NETNuGet | net.sf.mpxj-for-csharp | ≥ 8.3.5&&< 13.5.1 | 13.5.1dotnet add package net.sf.mpxj-for-csharp --version 13.5.1 |
| .NETNuGet | net.sf.mpxj-for-vb | ≥ 8.3.5&&< 13.5.1 | 13.5.1dotnet add package net.sf.mpxj-for-vb --version 13.5.1 |
| .NETNuGet | MPXJ.Net | ≥ 13.0.0&&< 13.5.1 | 13.5.1dotnet add package MPXJ.Net --version 13.5.1 |
| 🐍PyPI | mpxj | ≥ 8.3.5&&< 13.5.1 | 13.5.1pip install --upgrade 'mpxj==13.5.1' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for net.sf.mpxj:mpxj, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update net.sf.mpxj:mpxj to 13.5.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-49771 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-2024-49771 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-49771. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-49771 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-49771 across Maven, NuGet, PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.