CVE-2020-7961

Q: How do I fix CVE-2020-7961?

Upgrade liferay portal to 7.2.1 or later.

Q: Is CVE-2020-7961 being actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-7961 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation has been observed in the wild. US federal agencies were required to remediate it by 2022-05-03. Treat it as a priority whatever its CVSS score says.

Q: How severe is CVE-2020-7961?

CVE-2020-7961 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8, rated critical. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.

Q: What does CVE-2020-7961 affect?

Published advisories record a fix for liferay portal (NVD). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.

CRITICALCISA KEVEPSS 100th pctl

9.8

CVSS v3

NVD

Description

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).

CWE-502Deserialization of Untrusted Data

How to fix

Remediation Available

liferay portalNVD

Affected:< 7.2.1Fixed in:7.2.1CVE-2020-7961derived from NVD

TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorNetwork

Attack ComplexityLow

Privileges RequiredNone

User InteractionNone

ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityHigh

IntegrityHigh

AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploit Intelligence

99.91%probability of exploitation in 30 days

100thpercentile

Very high risk: more likely to be exploited than 100% of all known CVEs.

Known Exploited Vulnerability (CISA KEV)

Liferay Portal Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

Liferay Portal contains a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute code via JSON web services.

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Remediation due: 2022-05-03

References

Exploit1

research.checkpoint.com

Vendor Advisory2

Third-Party Advisory2

Government Resource1

cisa.gov

Related Vulnerabilities

Other CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all

CVE	Severity	CVSS	EPSS	Exploited	Fix
CVE-2023-0669	High	7.2	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2021-44228	Critical	10.0	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2021-35464	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2025-53770	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2023-29300	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	-
CVE-2025-59287	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV	Fix

Common questions

How do I fix CVE-2020-7961?

Upgrade liferay portal to 7.2.1 or later.

Is CVE-2020-7961 being actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-7961 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation has been observed in the wild. US federal agencies were required to remediate it by 2022-05-03. Treat it as a priority whatever its CVSS score says.

How severe is CVE-2020-7961?

CVE-2020-7961 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8, rated critical. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.

What does CVE-2020-7961 affect?

Published advisories record a fix for liferay portal (NVD). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.

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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2025-11-07.