CVE-2021-44228

CRITICALNVD 10.010.0
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score elevated to 10.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-12-10), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 10.0 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: cisa_kev, epss, nvd
Trending — 3 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
10.0
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS: 100%CVSS: 10.0Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

Apache Log4j2 2.0-beta9 through 2.15.0 (excluding security releases 2.12.2, 2.12.3, and 2.3.1) JNDI features used in configuration, log messages, and parameters do not protect against attacker controlled LDAP and other JNDI related endpoints. An attacker who can control log messages or log message parameters can execute arbitrary code loaded from LDAP servers when message lookup substitution is enabled. From log4j 2.15.0, this behavior has been disabled by default. From version 2.16.0 (along with 2.12.2, 2.12.3, and 2.3.1), this functionality has been completely removed. Note that this vulnerability is specific to log4j-core and does not affect log4net, log4cxx, or other Apache Logging Services projects.

CVSS v3
10.0
EG Score
10.0(medium)
EPSS
100.0%
KEV
⚠ Exploited

Published

December 10, 2021

Last Modified

February 20, 2026

Patch Availability(19)

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

(5 across 1 ecosystem)
Maven(5)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
com.guicedee.services:log4j-core1.0.10.0 ... 1.2.1.2-jre17 (362 versions)
org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core2.10.0 ... 2.9.1 (18 versions)2.12.2
org.ops4j.pax.logging:pax-logging-log4j22.0.0 ... 2.0.9 (11 versions)2.0.11
org.xbib.elasticsearch:log4j6.3.2.1
uk.co.nichesolutions.logging.log4j:log4j-core2.6.3-CUSTOM

Weakness Classification(4)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Additional Vendor Advisories

(5)

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 83× in last 7d / 356× 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.

Showing the most recent 100 of 505 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-07-12 00:12 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-12 00:12 UTCVendor advisory
  3. 2026-07-11 20:04 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-11 20:04 UTCVendor advisory
  5. 2026-07-11 15:55 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-11 15:55 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-07-11 11:46 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-07-11 11:46 UTCVendor advisory
  9. 2026-07-11 07:37 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-07-11 07:37 UTCVendor advisory
  11. 2026-07-11 03:28 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-07-11 03:28 UTCVendor advisory
  13. 2026-07-10 23:19 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-07-10 23:19 UTCVendor advisory
  15. 2026-07-10 19:09 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-07-10 19:09 UTCVendor advisory
  17. 2026-07-10 17:52 UTCCISA KEV update
  18. 2026-07-10 15:00 UTCEG score recompute
  19. 2026-07-10 15:00 UTCVendor advisory
  20. 2026-07-10 10:51 UTCEG score recompute
  21. 2026-07-10 10:51 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-07-10 06:41 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-07-10 06:41 UTCVendor advisory
  24. 2026-07-10 02:31 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-07-10 02:31 UTCVendor advisory
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-09 22:20 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-09 22:20 UTCVendor advisory
  3. 2026-07-09 18:12 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-09 18:12 UTCVendor advisory
  5. 2026-07-09 14:02 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-09 14:02 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-07-09 09:51 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-07-09 09:51 UTCVendor advisory
  9. 2026-07-09 05:42 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-07-09 05:42 UTCVendor advisory
  11. 2026-07-09 01:33 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-07-09 01:33 UTCVendor advisory
  13. 2026-07-08 21:21 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-07-08 21:21 UTCVendor advisory
  15. 2026-07-08 17:12 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-07-08 17:12 UTCVendor advisory
  17. 2026-07-08 13:03 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-07-08 13:03 UTCVendor advisory
  19. 2026-07-08 08:52 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-07-08 08:52 UTCVendor advisory
  21. 2026-07-08 04:44 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-07-08 04:44 UTCVendor advisory
  23. 2026-07-08 00:32 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-07-08 00:32 UTCVendor advisory
  25. 2026-07-07 20:22 UTCEG score recompute
  26. 2026-07-07 20:22 UTCVendor advisory
  27. 2026-07-07 19:01 UTCCISA KEV update
  28. 2026-07-07 17:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  29. 2026-07-07 16:14 UTCEG score recompute
  30. 2026-07-07 16:14 UTCVendor advisory
  31. 2026-07-07 12:05 UTCEG score recompute
  32. 2026-07-07 12:05 UTCVendor advisory
  33. 2026-07-07 07:56 UTCEG score recompute
  34. 2026-07-07 07:56 UTCVendor advisory
  35. 2026-07-07 03:46 UTCEG score recompute
  36. 2026-07-07 03:46 UTCVendor advisory
  37. 2026-07-06 23:37 UTCEG score recompute
  38. 2026-07-06 23:37 UTCVendor advisory
  39. 2026-07-06 19:28 UTCEG score recompute
  40. 2026-07-06 19:28 UTCVendor advisory
  41. 2026-07-06 15:18 UTCEG score recompute
  42. 2026-07-06 15:18 UTCVendor advisory
  43. 2026-07-06 11:07 UTCEG score recompute
  44. 2026-07-06 11:07 UTCVendor advisory
  45. 2026-07-06 06:58 UTCEG score recompute
  46. 2026-07-06 06:58 UTCVendor advisory
  47. 2026-07-06 02:49 UTCEG score recompute
  48. 2026-07-06 02:49 UTCVendor advisory
  49. 2026-07-05 22:40 UTCEG score recompute
  50. 2026-07-05 22:40 UTCVendor advisory
  51. 2026-07-05 18:31 UTCEG score recompute
  52. 2026-07-05 18:31 UTCVendor advisory
  53. 2026-07-05 14:22 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-07-05 14:22 UTCVendor advisory
  55. 2026-07-05 10:13 UTCEG score recompute
  56. 2026-07-05 10:13 UTCVendor advisory
  57. 2026-07-05 06:04 UTCEG score recompute
  58. 2026-07-05 06:04 UTCVendor advisory
  59. 2026-07-05 01:54 UTCEG score recompute
  60. 2026-07-05 01:54 UTCVendor advisory
  61. 2026-07-04 21:44 UTCEG score recompute
  62. 2026-07-04 21:44 UTCVendor advisory
  63. 2026-07-04 17:35 UTCEG score recompute
  64. 2026-07-04 17:35 UTCVendor advisory
  65. 2026-07-04 13:24 UTCEG score recompute
  66. 2026-07-04 13:24 UTCVendor advisory
  67. 2026-07-04 09:16 UTCEG score recompute
  68. 2026-07-04 09:16 UTCVendor advisory
  69. 2026-07-04 05:06 UTCEG score recompute
  70. 2026-07-04 05:06 UTCVendor advisory
  71. 2026-07-04 00:55 UTCEG score recompute
  72. 2026-07-04 00:55 UTCVendor advisory
  73. 2026-07-03 20:46 UTCEG score recompute
  74. 2026-07-03 20:46 UTCVendor advisory
  75. 2026-07-03 16:37 UTCEG score recompute

Publicly available exploits

(10 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (2 Metasploit modules) (5 GitHub PoCs) (3 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • Exploit-DBEDB-51183
    First seen Apr 1, 2023

    AD Manager Plus 7122 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-50592
    First seen Dec 14, 2021

    Apache Log4j 2 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-50590
    First seen Dec 14, 2021

    Apache Log4j2 2.14.1 - Information Disclosure

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCfox-it/log4j-finder
    First seen Dec 14, 2021

    Find vulnerable Log4j2 versions on disk and also inside Java Archive Files (Log4Shell CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-45046, CVE-2021-45105)

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/multi/http/log4shell_header_injection✓ verified
    First seen Dec 14, 2021

    Rapid7-maintained Metasploit module exploiting Log4j JNDI lookup injection via HTTP headers.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCfullhunt/log4j-scan
    First seen Dec 13, 2021

    A fully automated, accurate, and extensive scanner for finding log4j RCE CVE-2021-44228

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCmergebase/log4j-detector
    First seen Dec 12, 2021

    A public open sourced tool. Log4J scanner that detects vulnerable Log4J versions (CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-45046, etc) on your file-system within any application. It is able to even find Log4J instances that are hidden several layers deep. Works on Linux, Windows, and Mac, and everywhere else Java runs, too! TAG_OS_TOOL, OWNER_KELLY, DC_PUBLIC

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCcorretto/hotpatch-for-apache-log4j2
    First seen Dec 12, 2021

    An agent to hotpatch the log4j RCE from CVE-2021-44228.

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/linux/http/mobileiron_core_log4shell✓ verified
    First seen Dec 12, 2021

    MobileIron Core Unauthenticated JNDI Injection RCE (via Log4Shell)

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCkozmer/log4j-shell-poc✓ verified
    First seen Dec 11, 2021

    Self-contained Python PoC with a built-in LDAP+HTTP listener — minimal setup.

    Open source ↗

Past incidents using this CVE

(1)

This CVE was central to one or more publicly-documented breaches. Each card links to authoritative reporting at the time of the incident.

  • Log4Shell (Apache Log4j)Dec 2021

    JNDI lookup injection in Log4j, a ubiquitous Java logging library. Pre-auth unauthenticated RCE; Apache Foundation called it the worst vulnerability in a decade. Active exploitation continues 3+ years later.

    Source: Wired

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2021-44228?
CVE-2021-44228 is a critical vulnerability published on December 10, 2021. Apache Log4j2 2.0-beta9 through 2.15.0 (excluding security releases 2.12.2, 2.12.3, and 2.3.1) JNDI features used in configuration, log messages, and parameters do not protect against attacker controlled LDAP and other JNDI related endpoints. An attacker who can control log messages or log message…
When was CVE-2021-44228 disclosed?
CVE-2021-44228 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on December 10, 2021, with the most recent update on February 20, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2021-44228 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2021-44228 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on December 10, 2021, affecting Apache Log4j2. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate patching attention.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-44228?
CVE-2021-44228 has a CVSS v3 base score of 10.0 (NVD).
Which products are affected by CVE-2021-44228?
CVE-2021-44228 affects Apache Log4j2. The full affected-products list, including version ranges and fixed versions, is shown in the Affected Packages section of this page.
How do I remediate CVE-2021-44228?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2021-44228, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2021-44228

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