CVE-2020-7961

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8—
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 9.8 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8 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
9.8
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS: 100%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

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).

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8(high)
EG Risk
—
EPSS
100.0%
KEV
⚠ Exploited

Published

March 20, 2020

Last Modified

November 7, 2025

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Jun 1, 2026
No patch confirmed yet.
generic

FreakOut – Leveraging Newest Vulnerabilities for creating a Botnet - Check Point Research

https://research.checkpoint.com/2021/freakout-leveraging-newest-vulnerabilities-for-creating-a-botnet/
generic

Packet Storm

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/158392/Liferay-Portal-Remote-Code-Execution.html
generic

Packet Storm

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157254/Liferay-Portal-Java-Unmarshalling-Remote-Code-Execution.html

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Maven(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
com.liferay.portal:com.liferay.portal.kernel1.0.0 ... 4.9.0 (569 versions)4.35.3—

Weakness Classification(1)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 12× in last 7d / 23× 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.

  1. 2026-07-22 22:21 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-22 19:40 UTCCISA KEV update
  3. 2026-07-22 18:12 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-21 14:37 UTCCISA KEV update
  6. 2026-07-20 20:43 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-18 10:58 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-17 10:14 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-07-16 17:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  13. 2026-07-15 16:49 UTCCISA KEV update
  14. 2026-07-15 15:04 UTCCISA KEV update
  15. 2026-07-14 18:05 UTCCISA KEV update
  16. 2026-07-13 17:07 UTCCISA KEV update
  17. 2026-07-10 17:52 UTCCISA KEV update
  18. 2026-07-07 19:01 UTCCISA KEV update
  19. 2026-07-07 17:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  20. 2026-07-01 19:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  21. 2026-06-29 19:12 UTCCISA KEV update
  22. 2026-06-25 19:15 UTCCISA KEV update
  23. 2026-06-23 17:44 UTCCISA KEV update
  24. 2026-06-18 16:13 UTCCISA KEV update
  25. 2026-06-16 19:33 UTCCISA KEV update
Show 24 more
  1. 2026-06-15 19:33 UTCCISA KEV update
  2. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-12 17:35 UTCCISA KEV update
  4. 2026-06-11 19:10 UTCCISA KEV update
  5. 2026-06-09 18:42 UTCCISA KEV update
  6. 2026-06-09 17:12 UTCCISA KEV update
  7. 2026-06-08 19:16 UTCCISA KEV update
  8. 2026-06-08 17:26 UTCCISA KEV update
  9. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-05 22:43 UTCCISA KEV update
  13. 2026-06-03 19:09 UTCCISA KEV update
  14. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-02 18:32 UTCCISA KEV update
  17. 2026-06-01 20:42 UTCCISA KEV update
  18. 2026-05-29 22:20 UTCCISA KEV update
  19. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-05-27 20:35 UTCCISA KEV update
  22. 2026-05-26 19:17 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-05-26 19:13 UTCCISA KEV update
  24. 2026-05-26 08:16 UTCOSV refresh

Publicly available exploits

(7 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (4 GitHub PoCs) (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCCrackerCat/CVE-2020-7961-Mass
    First seen Apr 9, 2021

    CVE-2020–7961 Mass exploit for Script Kiddies

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCShutdownRepo/CVE-2020-7961
    First seen Jan 14, 2021

    Exploit script for CVE-2020-7961

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCthelostworldFree/CVE-2020-7961-payloads
    First seen May 23, 2020

    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)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-48332✓ verified
    First seen Apr 16, 2020

    Liferay Portal - Java Unmarshalling via JSONWS RCE (Metasploit)

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCmzer0one/CVE-2020-7961-POC
    First seen Mar 26, 2020
    Open source ↗
  • Nucleihttp/cves/2020/CVE-2020-7961.yaml
    First seen Jan 1, 2020

    Liferay Portal Unauthenticated < 7.2.1 CE GA2 - Remote Code Execution

    Open source ↗
  • Metasploitexploit/multi/http/liferay_java_unmarshalling✓ verified
    First seen Nov 25, 2019

    Liferay Portal Java Unmarshalling via JSONWS RCE

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2020-7961?
CVE-2020-7961 is a critical vulnerability published on March 20, 2020. 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).
When was CVE-2020-7961 disclosed?
CVE-2020-7961 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on March 20, 2020, with the most recent update on November 7, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2020-7961 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2020-7961 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on November 3, 2021, affecting Liferay Liferay Portal. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate patching attention.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-7961?
CVE-2020-7961 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
Which products are affected by CVE-2020-7961?
CVE-2020-7961 affects Liferay Liferay Portal. 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-2020-7961?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-7961, 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-2020-7961

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