XStream is a Java library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In XStream before version 1.4.16, there is a vulnerability which may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code only by manipulating the processed input stream. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. If you rely on XStream's default blacklist of the Security Framework, you will have to use at least version 1.4.16.
CVE-2021-21350
This medium-severity CVE scores 5.3 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 8.8%, top 7% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 5.3
- EG Score
- 5.3(medium)
- EPSS
- 96.4%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
March 23, 2021
Last Modified
May 23, 2025
References (30)
- security-advisories@githubhttp://x-stream.github.io/changes.html#1.4.16
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/x-stream/xstream/security/advisories/GHSA-43gc-mjxg-gvrq
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r8244fd0831db894d5e89911ded9c72196d395a90ae655414d23ed0dd%40%3Cusers.activemq.apache.org%3E
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r9ac71b047767205aa22e3a08cb33f3e0586de6b2fac48b425c6e16b0%40%3Cdev.jmeter.apache.org%3E
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/04/msg00002.html
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/22KVR6B5IZP3BGQ3HPWIO2FWWCKT3DHP/
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PVPHZA7VW2RRSDCOIPP2W6O5ND254TU7/
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QGXIU3YDPG6OGTDHMBLAFN7BPBERXREB/
- security-advisories@githubhttps://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210430-0002/
- security-advisories@githubhttps://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-5004
- security-advisories@githubhttps://www.oracle.com//security-alerts/cpujul2021.html
- security-advisories@githubhttps://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html
- security-advisories@githubhttps://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html
- security-advisories@githubhttps://x-stream.github.io/CVE-2021-21350.html
- security-advisories@githubhttps://x-stream.github.io/security.html#workaround
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2021-21350(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(6)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | libxstream-java (1.4.15-1ubuntu0.1) @ hirsute | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| ubuntu | libxstream-java (1.4.8-1ubuntu0.1+esm3) @ xenial | 2026-05-26 | ubuntu |
| redhat | xstream | 2021-12-14 | redhat |
| redhat | patch | 2021-12-02 | redhat |
| redhat | patch | 2021-11-23 | redhat |
| redhat | xstream-0:1.3.1-13.el7_9 | 2021-04-26 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Maven(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| com.thoughtworks.xstream:xstream | 0.1 ... 1.4.9 (40 versions) | 1.4.16 | — |
Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(8)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Red HatRHSA-2021:1354IMPORTANT2021-03-12
RHSA-2021:1354 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:2139IMPORTANT2021-03-12
RHSA-2021:2139 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:2475IMPORTANT2021-03-12
RHSA-2021:2475 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:2476IMPORTANT2021-03-12
RHSA-2021:2476 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4767IMPORTANT2021-03-12
RHSA-2021:4767 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2021:4918IMPORTANT2021-03-12
RHSA-2021:4918 — Important
- UbuntuUSN-4943-1MEDIUM
XStream vulnerabilities
- UbuntuUSN-6978-1MEDIUM
XStream vulnerabilities
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 39× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 06:48 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 46 moreShow fewer
- 2026-06-21 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 11:13 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 06:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 19:32 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-26 19:32 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-24 16:49 UTCEPSS rescore
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownredhat
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-434
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2021-21350?
When was CVE-2021-21350 disclosed?
Is CVE-2021-21350 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-21350?
How do I remediate CVE-2021-21350?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-21350
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2021-21350?
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