Your RSA-2048 keys break in 2030. Find every one of them before attackers do.
☕
☕ Maven
CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED
CRITICAL severity

Incomplete fix for Apache Log4j vulnerabilityGHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33

CRITICAL

GHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9) Expression Language Injection vulnerability in org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-05-01) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2021-45046
Published
Updated
Affected
7 pkgs
Patched
7 / 7
Exploits
13 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

  • Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2023-05-01 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2023-05-22.
  • A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for GHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
100.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Very High Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
92.6%95.1%97.5%100.0%94.3%100.0%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

GHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

7 pkgs affected
☕org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core☕org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core☕org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2☕org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2☕org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2☕org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2☕org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core

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

Impact

The fix to address CVE-2021-44228 in Apache Log4j 2.15.0 was incomplete in certain non-default configurations. This could allow attackers with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data when the logging configuration uses a non-default Pattern Layout with either a Context Lookup (for example, $${ctx:loginId}) or a Thread Context Map pattern (%X, %mdc, or %MDC) to craft malicious input data using a JNDI Lookup pattern resulting in a remote code execution (RCE) attack.

Affected packages

Only the org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core package is directly affected by this vulnerability. The org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api should be kept at the same version as the org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core package to ensure compatability if in use.

Mitigation

Log4j 2.16.0 fixes this issue by removing support for message lookup patterns and disabling JNDI functionality by default. This issue can be mitigated in prior releases (< 2.16.0) by removing the JndiLookup class from the classpath (example: zip -q -d log4j-core-*.jar org/apache/logging/log4j/core/lookup/JndiLookup.class).

Log4j 2.15.0 restricts JNDI LDAP lookups to localhost by default. Note that previous mitigations involving configuration such as to set the system property log4j2.formatMsgNoLookups to true do NOT mitigate this specific vulnerability.

Affected Packages

7 total 7 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core≥ 2.13.0&&< 2.16.02.16.0org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.16.0
☕Mavenorg.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core≥ 2.4.0&&< 2.12.22.12.2org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.12.2
☕Mavenorg.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2≥ 1.8.0&&< 1.9.21.9.2org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2:1.9.2
☕Mavenorg.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2≥ 1.10.0&&< 1.10.81.10.8org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2:1.10.8
☕Mavenorg.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2≥ 1.11.0&&< 1.11.111.11.11org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2:1.11.11
☕Mavenorg.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.0.122.0.12org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j2:2.0.12

Affected Products

55 products · 90 configurations
Application
log4japache
≥ 2.13.0 && < 2.16.0
1 version
2.0
Application
computer vision annotation toolcvat
all
OS
debian linuxdebian
2 versions
10.011.0
OS
fedorafedoraproject
2 versions
3435
Application
audio development kitintel
all
Application
datacenter managerintel
all
Exploits & PoCs
13

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 dependency
  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core to 2.16.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

How to detect GHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33

A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:

nuclei -id ghsa-7rjr-3q55-vv33 -u https://target
Template
Apache Log4j2 - Remote Code Injection
Severity
critical
Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system.
Remediation
Apply the latest security patches or upgrade to a non-vulnerable version of Apache Log4j2.

Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (ImNightmaree), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.

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

Although we have matched Apache's CVSS score, with the exception of the scope metric which will remain unaltered at "unchanged"; as we believe code execution would be at the permission levels of the running JVM and not exceeding that of the original CVE-2021-44228 flaw. We have given this vulnerability an impact…

Workaround published by Red Hat
For Log4j versions up to and including 2.15.0, this issue can be mitigated by removing the JndiLookup class from the classpath (example: zip -q -d log4j-core-*.jar org/apache/logging/log4j/core/lookup/JndiLookup.class).
Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33 (CC BY 4.0)
ProductFixed inAdvisory
OpenShift Logging 5.0openshift-logging/elasticsearch6-rhel8:v5.0.10-1RHSA-2021:5137
OpenShift Logging 5.1openshift-logging/elasticsearch6-rhel8:v6.8.1-67RHSA-2021:5128
OpenShift Logging 5.2openshift-logging/elasticsearch6-rhel8:v6.8.1-66RHSA-2021:5127
OpenShift Logging 5.3openshift-logging/elasticsearch6-rhel8:v6.8.1-65RHSA-2021:5129
Red Hat AMQ Streams 2.0.0see advisoryRHSA-2022:0138
Red Hat Data Grid 8.2.3log4j-coreRHSA-2022:0205
Red Hat Fuse 7.8.2, 7.9.1, 7.10.1log4j-coreRHSA-2022:0203
Red Hat Integration Camel Extensions for Quarkus 2.2see advisoryRHSA-2022:0222
UbuntuCRITICAL

Frequently Asked Questions

# Impact The fix to address [CVE-2021-44228](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-44228) in Apache Log4j 2.15.0 was incomplete in certain non-default configurations. This could allow attackers with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data when the logging configuration uses a non-default Pattern Layout with either a Context Lookup (for example, $${ctx:loginId}) or a Thread Context Map pattern (%X, %mdc, or %MDC) to craft malicious input data using a JNDI Lookup pattern resulting in a remote code execution (RCE) attack. ## Affected packages Only the `org.apache.logging.log4j:log
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-7rjr-3q55-vv33 in your dependencies?

Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.

Incomplete fix for Apache Log4j vulnerability (Critical 9)