CVE-2021-43859
Denial of Service by injecting highly recursive collections or maps in XStream
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 7.5 High
- Published
- Feb 1, 2022
- Updated
- Nov 3, 2025
- Reserved
- Nov 16, 2021
Description
XStream is an open source java library to serialize objects to XML and back again. Versions prior to 1.4.19 may allow a remote attacker to allocate 100% CPU time on the target system depending on CPU type or parallel execution of such a payload resulting in a denial of service only by manipulating the processed input stream. XStream 1.4.19 monitors and accumulates the time it takes to add elements to collections and throws an exception if a set threshold is exceeded. Users are advised to upgrade as soon as possible. Users unable to upgrade may set the NO_REFERENCE mode to prevent recursion. See GHSA-rmr5-cpv2-vgjf for further details on a workaround if an upgrade is not possible.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 7.5 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H | GitHub_M |
Weaknesses
- CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
xstreamx-stream |
|
References
- https://github.com/x-stream/xstream/security/advisories/GHSA-rmr5-cpv2-vgjf
- https://github.com/x-stream/xstream/commit/e8e88621ba1c85ac3b8620337dd672e0c0c3a846
- https://x-stream.github.io/CVE-2021-43859.html
- [oss-security] 20220209 Vulnerability in Jenkinsmailing-list
- FEDORA-2022-ad5cf1c0ddvendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2022-983a78275cvendor-advisory
- [debian-lts-announce] 20220215 [SECURITY] [DLA 2924-1] libxstream-java security updatemailing-list
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujul2022.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/12/msg00023.html
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