Apache Struts 2.3.19 to 2.3.20.2, 2.3.21 to 2.3.24.1, and 2.3.25 to 2.3.28, when Dynamic Method Invocation is enabled, allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via method: prefix, related to chained expressions.
CVE-2016-3081
“▲” beside the score: it is higher than NVD's CVSS score.
Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2026-10-08), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 8.1 retained for reference. The 9.0 is the floor for confirmed exploitation, not an impact rating: this CVE's impact severity (EG Severity) is CVSS 8.1 HIGH under GitHub Security Advisory CVSS. Confidence: HIGH.
Also known asEUVD-2022-3161 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-8c6j-ffmf-q6vm (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV) — the reason this is sooner than the SSVC decision on this page at low or medium mission impact
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 8.1
- EG Score
- 9.0CRITICALhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 76EG Risk 76/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity81% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 8.1 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation100% × 40%Fixed at 100% for a CISA KEV listing: EchelonGraph's rule.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact. - EPSS PROB
- 97%
- EPSS %ILE
- 99th
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (9.0): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 9.0 is the CISA KEV floor for confirmed exploitation, not an impact rating: its impact severity (EG Severity) is CVSS 8.1 HIGH.
- EG Severity
- 8.1 HIGHCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
- EG Likelihood
- 97% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-31). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- CISA KEV and EG-KEV Tier 1 (exploited in the wild)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Attend at medium mission impactTrack at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.CISA BOD 26-04: 3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 14 days if it is not.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact.
Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 14 days if it is not.
The score's inputs: In CISA KEV yes (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
CISA required action“Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.”
Quoted verbatim from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CISA directs it at US federal civilian executive branch agencies under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04, which replaced BOD 22-01 on 10 June 2026; it is not EchelonGraph's advice. CISA's notes: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/WW/S2-032 · https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-26-04-prioritizing-security-updates-based-risk · https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/bod-26-04-implementation-guidance-prioritizing-security-updates-based-risk · https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-3081
Published
April 26, 2016
Last Modified
October 9, 2026
Advisory Details (7)
Auto-updated Oct 26, 2026S2-032 - Apache Struts 2 Wiki - Apache Software Foundation
https://struts.apache.org/docs/s2-032.htmlApache Struts Dynamic Method Invocation Remote Code Execution | Metasploit Module
http://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/multi/http/struts_dmi_execRapid7 Vulnerability Database
http://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/linux/http/struts_dmi_execSecurity Advisory - Apache Struts2 Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in Huawei Products
http://www.huawei.com/en/psirt/security-advisories/huawei-sa-20160527-01-struts2-enPatch Availability(3)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fix (by version range) / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| maven | org.apache.struts:struts2-core @ 2.3.20.3 (fixes >= 2.3.19, <= 2.3.20.2) | — | ghsa |
| maven | org.apache.struts:struts2-core @ 2.3.24.3 (fixes >= 2.3.21, <= 2.3.24.2) | — | ghsa |
| maven | org.apache.struts:struts2-core @ 2.3.28.1 (fixes >= 2.3.25, <= 2.3.28) | — | ghsa |
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 | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| org.apache.struts:struts2-core | 2.3.28 |
| — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 38× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. 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. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 11 repeat rows among the latest 99 are merged into the row they repeat.
- 2026-11-01 09:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-8c6j-ffmf-q6vm · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.1
- 2026-11-01 08:47 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-8c6j-ffmf-q6vm · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.1
- 2026-11-01 08:47 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-31 08:34 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-30 07:13 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-29 05:52 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-28 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 97% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-28 04:30 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-27 03:09 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-25 19:47 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-25 16:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 97% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-25 00:24 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-23 23:03 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-22 21:41 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-21 20:19 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-21 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 96% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-20 18:58 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-19 17:38 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-18 10:51 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-17 14:53 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-16 16:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 96% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-16 13:30 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-15 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 96% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-15 12:07 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-14 16:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 96% · 99th percentile
Show 63 moreShow fewer
- 2026-10-14 10:44 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-12 20:44 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 19:43 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 15:40 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 11:36 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-10 23:26 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-10 19:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 96% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-09 23:00 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-09 20:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 95% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-08 18:24 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-08 17:50 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-08 17:35 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-10-07 23:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-30 14:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-30 09:12 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-24 13:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-19 01:36 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-09-17 19:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-10 09:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-07 15:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-02 14:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-31 05:19 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-30 19:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-27 14:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-21 23:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-16 14:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-14 12:54 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-12 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-08-08 16:32 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-30 16:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-30 01:07 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-26 14:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-25 14:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-23 01:22 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:02 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-19 14:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 93% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-18 10:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-12 10:08 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-06 02:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-23 15:50 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-14 23:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-13 22:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-11 13:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-10 22:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-10 13:18 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-06 20:29 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-05-26 07:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-05-22 20:35 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-22 13:01 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-05-20 22:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
- 2026-05-18 21:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 94% · 99th percentile
Publicly available exploits
(3 references)Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Metasploit module, 1 Exploit-DB entry), as is 1 Nuclei detection template. A detection template checks whether a system is affected; it is not necessarily exploit code. Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly.
- Exploit-DBEDB-39756✓ verifiedPublished May 2, 2016
Apache Struts - Dynamic Method Invocation Remote Code Execution (Metasploit)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitexploit/multi/http/struts_dmi_exec✓ verifiedPublished Apr 29, 2016
Apache Struts Dynamic Method Invocation Remote Code Execution
Open source ↗ - Nucleihttp/cves/2016/CVE-2016-3081.yamlPublished Feb 16, 2021
Apache S2-032 Struts - Remote Code Execution
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)
Same product
10 shownMaven:org.apache.struts:struts2-core
- CVE-2017-5638NVD 9.8EG 10.0 KEVEPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2013-4316EG 10.0EPSS p95HIGH
- CVE-2012-0838EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2024-53677EG 9.8EPSS p99CRITICAL
- CVE-2023-50164EG 9.8EPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2021-31805EG 9.8EPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2020-17530EG 9.8 KEVEPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2019-0230EG 9.8EPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2011-3923EG 9.8EPSS p100CRITICAL
- CVE-2017-12611EG 9.8EPSS p100CRITICAL
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-77
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2016-3081?
When was CVE-2016-3081 made public?
Is CVE-2016-3081 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2016-3081?
Which products are affected by CVE-2016-3081?
How do I remediate CVE-2016-3081?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2016-3081
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