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
9.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS PROB: 100%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: cisa kev · ssvc active · Metasploit · Exploit-DB (verified) · epss top5pct · epss high · public exploitExposed: 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
99(Act)
EG Risk 99/100SSVC: Act

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity98% × 45%
Exploitation100% × 40%
Automatability100% × 15%
Action: Fix now — active exploitation, automatable, high impact.
EPSS PROB
100%
EPSS %ILE
100%
KEV
⚠ Exploited

Published

March 20, 2020

Last Modified

November 7, 2025

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Sep 17, 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 Security

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

Packet Storm Security

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

Publicly available exploits

(8 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (5 GitHub PoCs) (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCdinosn/liferay-ga4-rce-research
    First seen Jul 28, 2026

    Security research on Liferay CE 7.0.3 GA4: pre-auth RCE as root (CVE-2020-7961 class) reproduced end-to-end, plus 16 more findings — 8+ with no known CVE. Agentic loop-hunt: 25 generators, 22 judges, 9 live validators on Docker. Evidence trail + one-go checker included.

    Open source ↗
  • 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 ↗

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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