CVEs / CVE-2020-7961

CVE-2020-7961: Liferay Portal Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

Known exploited in the CISA KEV catalog since 3 Nov 2021
critical 9.8 CVSS 3.1 (NVD)
EPSS 99.9% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99% of CVEs (30 Oct 2026)
Last changed at its sources 24 Oct 2026

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Summary

Liferay Portal contains a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute code via JSON web services.
CISA, Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

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).
The CVE record, via NVD · published 20 Mar 2020 · NVD status: Analyzed

Affected and fixed versions

As stated by the CVE record (from the CNA)
Product	Affected	Fixed in
n/a n/a	n/a	—

As stated by OSV
Product	Affected	Fixed in
com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel (Maven)	before 4.35.3	4.35.3

Package versions from GHSA-w7pm-cc4v-f3g8.

Exploitation

In CISA KEV since	3 Nov 2021
Due date for US federal agencies	3 May 2022
Used in ransomware campaigns	Unknown
Required action	Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Severity

CVSS 3.1	9.8 critical `CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Scored by NVD
Weakness	CWE-502

References

CVE-2020-7961 on NVD
CVE-2020-7961 in the CISA KEV catalog
CVE-2020-7961 on OSV
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157254/Liferay-Portal-Java-Unmarshalling-Remote-Code-Execution.html Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158392/Liferay-Portal-Remote-Code-Execution.html Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
https://portal.liferay.dev/learn/security/known-vulnerabilities Broken Link, Vendor Advisory
https://portal.liferay.dev/learn/security/known-vulnerabilities/-/asset_publisher/HbL5mxmVrnXW/content/id/117954271 Broken Link, Vendor Advisory
https://research.checkpoint.com/2021/freakout-leveraging-newest-vulnerabilities-for-creating-a-botnet/ Exploit, Third Party Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-7961 US Government Resource

Sources

Exploitation status from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. EPSS scores from FIRST. Descriptions, severity and references from the National Vulnerability Database. Open-source package versions from OSV (CC-BY 4.0). Text is shown as each source states it; Stackurity does not edit it. Check the vendor's advisory before acting.

This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.