CVE-2021-28170

Exp

In the Jakarta Expression Language implementation 3.0.3 and earlier, a bug in the ELParserTokenManager enables invalid EL expressions to be evaluated as if they were valid.

Published: 2021-05-26 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-28170 is rated High Exploit Risk (66.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.13%). 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.05% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2021-28170

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-28170

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.08% 2.13% +2.05%
2 2025-11-21 0.22% 0.08% -0.14%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.22% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-28170

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-28170

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-28170

GHSA-v6w3-2prq-h95f · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Improper Input Validation in Jakarta Expression Language

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-28170

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2021-28170 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (jakarta-el-api), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-28170
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-28170
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-28170 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (jakarta-el-api), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 8, DNE 4, needs-triage 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-28170

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-28170

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
eclipse jakarta_expression_language <= 3.0.3 cpe:2.3:a:eclipse:jakarta_expression_language:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
quarkus quarkus < 2.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:quarkus:quarkus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_policy 1.14.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_policy:1.14.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle weblogic_server 14.1.1.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:weblogic_server:14.1.1.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-28170

URL Tags
https://github.com/eclipse-ee4j/el-ri/issues/155 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2020-021-jakarta-el/ Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html Patch Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence