XStream is vulnerable to an Arbitrary Code Execution attack

XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to load and execute arbitrary code from a remote host only by manipulating the processed input stream. A user is only affected if using the version out of the box with JDK 1.7u21 or below. However, this scenario can be adjusted easily to an external Xalan that works regardless of the version of the Java runtime. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. XStream 1.4.18 uses no longer a blacklist by default, since it cannot be secured for general purpose.

Source published

23 Aug 2021 17:50:14 UTC

Source modified

7 Oct 2026 19:58:53 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

Source terms

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CVSS 3.1 · 8.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H