01 Record
CVE-2020-7961
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).
CriticalKEVPUBLISHEDCNA: mitre
CNA base score9.8 CVSS v3.xCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
02 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).
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Exploited in the wild. Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03. Federal remediation due 2022-05-03.
- SSVC decision
- ExploitationactiveCISA reports credible evidence of active exploitation.
- AutomatableyesAn attacker can reliably automate reconnaissance through exploitation, so this scales.
- Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.
- EPSS probability
- 99.90% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 99.9% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.
- NVD base score
- 9.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.
- NVD CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- NVD analysis status
- Analyzed. NVD last modified this record on 2026-06-17.
- Red Hat severity
- No Red Hat rating. Red Hat rates the CVEs that affect its products.
Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2020-03-20 18:16Z6 YR AGO
- Last updated
- 2025-10-21 23:35Z1 YR AGO
- Reserved
- 2020-01-24
- Assigning CNA
- mitre
- Record state
- PUBLISHED
- Severity
- Critical (CVSS 9.8)
- CNA CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-502Deserialization of Untrusted DataBase
- Data version
- 5.1
- Document digest
- ae6f34538aa1549d3614e0643f940a1948711835981964902ef44846b3cb4d98
05 Affected products
VendorProductVersionsPlatforms
06 References
- portal.liferay.devhttps://portal.liferay.dev/learn/security/known-vulnerabilities
- portal.liferay.devhttps://portal.liferay.dev/learn/security/known-vulnerabilities/-/asset_publisher/HbL5mxmVrnXW/content/id/117954271
- packetstormsecurity.comhttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157254/Liferay-Portal-Java-Unmarshalling-Remote-Code-Execution.html
- packetstormsecurity.comhttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158392/Liferay-Portal-Remote-Code-Execution.html
- research.checkpoint.comhttps://research.checkpoint.com/2021/freakout-leveraging-newest-vulnerabilities-for-creating-a-botnet/
- www.cisa.govhttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-7961