`CVE-2020-7961`

9.8 Critical Protected by RASP

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).

CWE-502 · Deserialization of untrusted data

Exploitation Status

Exploited in the wild

Confirmed real-world exploitation.

CVSS E:A

CISA KEV listed Confirmed exploitation in the wild. Added 2021-11-03 · remediation due 2022-05-03 · ransomware use: unknown
CISA Vulnrichment exploitation: active CISA records active exploitation. Automatable: yes, technical impact: total.
Indexed PoC 9 indexed Published artifacts you can open, in Exploit-DB, GitHub PoC, Nuclei; first seen 2020-03-26.
EPSS 99.9% chance in 30 days A model prediction, not an observation. Higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs.

3 of these are GitHub repositories below the 5★ evidence bar. They are listed because a person may still want to open one; they do not count toward the exploit maturity above.

Index	Artifact	Stars	First seen
GitHub PoC	mzer0one/CVE-2020-7961-POC	118	2020-03-26
GitHub PoC	Exploit script for CVE-2020-7961	18	2021-01-14
GitHub PoC	Security research on Liferay CE 7.0.3 GA4: pre-auth RCE as root (CVE-2020-7961 class) reproduced end-to-end, plus 16 more findings — 8+ with no known CVE. Agentic loop-hunt: 25 generators, 22 judges, 9 live validators on Docker. Evidence trail + one-go checker included.	7	2026-07-28
GitHub PoC	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)	5	2020-05-23
GitHub PoC	CVE-2020–7961 Mass exploit for Script Kiddies	2	2021-04-09
GitHub PoC	Detect vulns liferay CVE-2020-7961 by Nattroc (EOG Team)		2021-05-27
GitHub PoC	POC-CVE-2020-7961-Token-iterate		2021-05-26
Exploit-DB	Liferay Portal - Java Unmarshalling via JSONWS RCE (Metasploit)		2020-04-16
Nuclei	Liferay Portal Unauthenticated < 7.2.1 CE GA2 - Remote Code Execution

Waratek Defense Posture

Protected by RASP

A Waratek agent blocks this today.

Applicable rule: Promoted to MITIGATED-BY-RASP (security rule): this CVE's weakness (CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data) can be mitigated by an ARMR deserialization security rule that blocks this class of attack at the JVM level, without requiring a CVE-specific patch.

Protection full a general security rule for the vulnerability class
Action available security rule
Review automated inferred
Record active

Decided by secure-rule-match : A vulnerability class already blocked by an ARMR security rule

Finding Promoted to MITIGATED-BY-RASP (security rule): this CVE's weakness (CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data) can be mitigated by an ARMR deserialization security rule that blocks this class of attack at the JVM level, without requiring a CVE-specific patch.

Decided by	`secure-rule-match` : A vulnerability class already blocked by an ARMR security rule
Finding	Promoted to MITIGATED-BY-RASP (security rule): this CVE's weakness (CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data) can be mitigated by an ARMR deserialization security rule that blocks this class of attack at the JVM level, without requiring a CVE-specific patch.

CVSS

9.8 CRITICAL v3.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 3 metrics

VRT selects the newest version's highest entry and publishes it as cvssScore, newest rather than largest because scores are not comparable across versions, and highest rather than first because the first entry is frequently a CNA placeholder scoring 0.0 over NVD's own analysis.

Version Score Band Vector Assigner Type

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 NVD Primary published

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 CISA-ADP Secondary

CVSS 2.0 7.5 no band published AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P NVD Primary

Version	Score	Band	Vector	Assigner	Type
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`	NVD	Primary	published
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`	CISA-ADP	Secondary
CVSS 2.0	7.5	no band published	`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P`	NVD	Primary

Affected Software & Releases

☕ Maven Library Packages

Artifact coordinates and fix boundaries from OSV.dev

Package Coordinate Introduced Fixed Last affected

com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel 0 4.35.3 unbounded

Package Coordinate	Introduced	Fixed	Last affected
`com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel`	0	`4.35.3`	unbounded

🖥️ Product CPEs & Version Ranges

2 product(s) over 2 version claims (uncapped)

Source	Vendor	Product	Scheme	Affected Versions
osv	com.liferay.portal	com.liferay.portal.kernel	generic	＜ 4.35.3
nvd	liferay	liferay portal	generic	＜ 7.2.1

Source

Vendor

Product

Scheme

Affected Versions

osv

com.liferay.portal

com.liferay.portal.kernel

generic

＜ 4.35.3

nvd

liferay

liferay portal

generic

＜ 7.2.1

References

URL	Tags
https://github.com/liferay/liferay-portal	PACKAGE
https://github.com/liferay/liferay-portal/blob/7.2.1-ga2/portal-kernel/bnd.bnd	WEB
https://portal.liferay.dev/learn/security/known-vulnerabilities	WEB
https://portal.liferay.dev/learn/security/known-vulnerabilities/-/asset_publisher/HbL5mxmVrnXW/content/id/117954271	WEB
https://research.checkpoint.com/2021/freakout-leveraging-newest-vulnerabilities-for-creating-a-botnet	WEB
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-7961	WEB
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157254/Liferay-Portal-Java-Unmarshalling-Remote-Code-Execution.html	WEB
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158392/Liferay-Portal-Remote-Code-Execution.html	WEB
https://research.checkpoint.com/2021/freakout-leveraging-newest-vulnerabilities-for-creating-a-botnet/	Exploit, Third Party Advisory

URL

Timeline

Published 2020-03-20 Last modified 2026-06-17

Published	2020-03-20	By the CVE Program.
NVD record modified	2026-06-17	NVD's own last-modified date for this record.

Published

2020-03-20

By the CVE Program.

NVD record modified

2026-06-17

NVD's own last-modified date for this record.

Pipeline policy audit (15 of 21 rules evaluated)

15 of 21 rules ran. The rest were never reached, because an earlier stage settled the CVE, a distinct claim from a rule that ran and found nothing.

# Rule Outcome Status Detail

identity: Does this identifier describe a vulnerability at all? first match wins

1 rejected no-match CVE Program withdrawal of this identifier

scope: Is the vulnerability ARMR's to address? first match wins

2 armr-patch-file no-match An ARMR patch file on disk for this CVE

3 armr-secure-rule-file no-match An ARMR security-rule template on disk for this CVE

4 manual-classification no-match A researcher's recorded decision for this specific CVE

5 manual classification no-match Manual classification of this CVE in the legacy dataset

6 non-java-upstream no-match A root cause in non-Java code: an OS kernel, a C library, or a bundled runtime

7 oracle-component no-match The defect being in a component of a tracked product the agent does not reach: JavaFX, the Java SE installer, the native WebLogic proxy plug-in. Oracle gives these no CPE of their own and names them only in the description.

8 osv-maven matched Queued for review Maven packages: com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel

9 cna-maven-package not-reached An affected Maven artifact named by the CNA itself

10 known-cpe-product not-reached An NVD CPE naming a product ARMR tracks

11 cna-cpe-product not-reached A CPE the CNA published naming a tracked product. Oracle publishes these on advisory day, months before NVD.

12 oracle-advisory-family not-reached A tracked product family named in Oracle's own risk matrix. CPE cannot carry a suite name, only a module.

13 non-deployable-product not-reached The only affected product being a sealed appliance image, where Java runs but no -javaagent can be attached

14 unmatched-product not-reached No tracked product matched above, and none present at all

disposition: What do we do about one that is? cumulative: every rule gets a turn

15 patch-hint no-match A reference pointing at the upstream fix: a commit, a PR, a Red Hat bug

16 open-source-maven matched Mitigation candidate Open-source Maven artifact indexed by OSV (Maven packages: com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel). The source is public, which makes an ARMR patch rule a candidate; nothing here establishes that one can be written.

17 poc-derivable skipped An indexed exploit to reverse-engineer, where there is no source to read

18 no-exploit skipped With no fix path, a public exploit, or a CISA record of one

19 secure-rule-match decided it matched Protected by RASP CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data) is mitigable by an ARMR deserialization security rule.

20 below-action-threshold skipped Medium or Low severity, no KEV listing, no PoC clearing the evidence bar, no CISA verdict, no Oracle advisory

21 no-exploit-published skipped A published working exploit for this candidate, not only a proof of concept, a forecast, or nothing at all

What the scope rules read

The products the record named, and whether known-products.yaml tracks them. This is the evidence the scope stage decided on.

Vendor Product Tracked CPE Source

liferay liferay_portal not tracked cpe:2.3:a:liferay:liferay_portal:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*

Raw stored JSON document for this CVE ↗ · NVD ↗ · CVE.org ↗