Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Liferay PortalGHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8
CRITICALGHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-03.
- 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 (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for GHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8 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 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernelReal-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
Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Liferay Portal prior to 7.2.1 CE GA2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via JSON web services (JSONWS).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel | all versions | 4.35.3com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel:4.35.3 |
Affected Products
liferay portalliferayResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Liferay Portal - Java Unmarshalling via JSONWS RCE (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Apr 16, 2020
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel to 4.35.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8 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.
How to detect GHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id ghsa-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8 -u https://target- Template
- Liferay Portal Unauthenticated < 7.2.1 CE GA2 - Remote Code Execution
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Unauthenticated attackers can execute arbitrary code via JSON web services, leading to complete server compromise and access to all portal data.
- Remediation
- Upgrade Liferay Portal to version 7.2.1 CE GA2 or later to mitigate the vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (dwisiswant0), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.