NVD / CVE Program· CNA mitre

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 ser

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Now (action score 99/100)

CISA has confirmed exploitation in the wild (Nov 3, 2021). Remediation deadline for US federal agencies: May 3, 2022.
A ready-made attack module is public (Metasploit, Nuclei); exploiting it takes no special expertise.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 99.9% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 99.9% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
Fixed version: com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel (Maven) 4.35.3.

Patch today or shut off access. Upgrade to com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel (Maven) 4.35.3 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · CISA KEV · FIRST EPSS

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).

CriticalCVSS 9.8 · v3.1KEVWeaponized Fix available

Published: Mar 20, 2020
Updated: Jun 16, 2026
EPSS: 99.9% · 99th percentile
CWE: CWE-502

Report tools

JSON

Action score

Now

Patch today or shut off access.

CVSS: 39 / 40 · 9.8 / 10
CISA KEV: 30 / 30 · Listed
EPSS: 30 / 30 · 99.9%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: active
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

Actively exploited in the wild

CISA added this to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Nov 3, 2021. That signals real attacks, not theory.

Remediation deadline for US federal agencies: May 3, 2022.

Get told when this record changes

In CISA KEV: exploitation in the wild confirmed
Weaponized exploit exists
A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
liferay	liferay portal	cpe:2.3:a:liferay:liferay_portal

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

liferay liferay portalbefore 7.2.1

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

Ecosystem	Package	Affected range	Fix
Maven	com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel	before 4.35.3	4.35.3

Same product

liferay: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2019-16891Liferay Portal CE 6.2.5 allows remote command execution because of deserialization of a JSON payload.
52Plan
CVE-2021-33990Liferay Portal 6.2.5 allows Command=FileUpload&Type=File&CurrentFolder=/ requests when frmfolders.html exists.
43Plan
CVE-2020-13445In Liferay Portal before 7.3.2 and Liferay DXP 7.0 before fix pack 92, 7.1 before fix pack 18, and 7.2 before fix pack 6, the template API d
36Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2019-16147Sep 9, 2019 · Liferay Portal through 7.2.0 GA1 allows XSS via a journal article title to journal_article/page.jsp in journal/journal-taglib.
24Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2020-7934Jan 28, 2020 · In LifeRay Portal CE 7.1.0 through 7.2.1 GA2, the First Name, Middle Name, and Last Name fields for user accounts in MyAccountPortlet are al
22Monitor
Later →CVE-2020-13444Jun 10, 2020 · Liferay Portal 7.x before 7.3.2, and Liferay DXP 7.0 before fix pack 92, 7.1 before fix pack 18, and 7.2 before fix pack 5 does not sanitize
26Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
Maven:com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel	4.35.3	Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

Weaponized

A ready exploit tool or active in-the-wild use is known for this vulnerability. This should be your top priority.

Evidence

Metasploit module ×1
Exploit-DB entry ×1
Nuclei detection template ×3
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub ×10

Noroxi does not host or link to exploit code. Metasploit module names and Nuclei template ids are shown (names, not code); Exploit-DB entries and PoC repositories are given as counts only.

Public exploit evidence
Source	Kind	Date
Exploit-DB entry	remote	2020-04-16
Metasploit module	exploit/multi/http/liferay_java_unmarshallingLiferay Portal Java Unmarshalling via JSONWS RCEexploit	2019-11-25
Nuclei detection template	Nuclei template CVE-2020-7961	—
Nuclei detection template	Nuclei template liferay-portal	—
Nuclei detection template	Nuclei template liferay-workflow	—
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:117	2020-03-26
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:5	2020-05-23
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:18	2021-01-14
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:2	2021-04-09
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:0	2021-05-26
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:0	2021-05-27
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:0	2022-05-22

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

MetasploitNov 25, 2019-117 d
PublishedMar 20, 2020
First PoCMar 26, 2020+5 d
CISA KEVNov 3, 2021+592 d
TodayNov 2, 2026+2418 d

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

Liferay VDPIntigriti · disclosure only (VDP)

The product’s vendor appears in a public program. Matched by name; verify the scope text in the program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: high · data can be read
Integrity: high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: High
Integrity impact: High
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-502 · Deserialization of Untrusted Data

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

Data received over the network is deserialized into the language’s native object format without verifying its source. Code paths inside the object can be triggered during deserialization.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-502 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

python

1payload = sock.recv(65536)
2job = pickle.loads(payload)

Fixed

python

1payload = sock.recv(65536)
2if not hmac.compare_digest(sign(payload), header_sig):
3    raise PermissionError("invalid signature")
4job = JobSchema.validate(json.loads(payload))