VulnerabilityPublished 18 Aug 2025Updated 4 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-53192: Apache Commons OGNL · Improper Neutralization of Expression/Command Delimiters

Affects Apache Commons OGNLSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High · end of life, no fix coming : replace or isolate Apache Commons OGNL; no fix will be released.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

8.8High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 46% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: None coming – the product is end of life

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 18 Aug 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

No fix will be released: Apache Commons OGNL is end of life. Replace it, or isolate it from untrusted networks until you can.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Apache Software Foundation Apache Commons OGNL	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Given the absence of patches, European organizations should prioritize the following mitigations: 1) Identify and inventory all systems using Apache Commons OGNL to understand exposure. 2) Migrate applications to supported and actively maintained alternatives that do not use OGNL or use safer expression evaluation libraries. 3) Implement strict network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict access to vulnerable systems only to trusted users and internal networks. 4) Employ application-layer input validation and sanitization to detect and block malicious OGNL expressions. 5) Monitor logs and network traffic for suspicious activity indicative of exploitation attempts. 6) Use runtime application self-protection (RASP) or web application firewalls (WAFs) configured to detect OGNL injection patterns. 7) Educate developers and administrators about the risks of using retired and unsupported components. 8) Develop incident response plans specific to OGNL exploitation scenarios. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on compensating controls and migration strategies tailored to the unique challenge of an unsupported library.

Description

** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED ** Improper Neutralization of Expression/Command Delimiters vulnerability in Apache Commons OGNL. This issue affects Apache Commons OGNL: all versions. When using the API Ognl.getValue, the OGNL engine parses and evaluates the provided expression with powerful capabilities, including accessing and invoking related methods, etc. Although OgnlRuntime attempts to restrict certain dangerous classes and methods (such as java.lang.Runtime) through a blocklist, these restrictions are not comprehensive. Attackers may be able to bypass the restrictions by leveraging class objects that are not covered by the blocklist and potentially achieve arbitrary code execution. As this project is retired, we do not plan to release a version that fixes this issue. Users are recommended to find an alternative or restrict access to the instance to trusted users. NOTE: This vulnerability only affects products that are no longer supported by the maintainer.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk, especially for those running legacy Java applications that rely on Apache Commons OGNL. Successful exploitation can lead to arbitrary code execution, resulting in data breaches, system manipulation, and service disruption. This can affect critical infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, and government systems that depend on vulnerable software components. The lack of vendor support and patches increases the risk exposure, as attackers may develop exploits over time. Additionally, compliance with European data protection regulations such as GDPR may be jeopardized if sensitive data is compromised. The vulnerability's network attack vector and low complexity make it feasible for remote attackers to exploit, increasing the threat landscape for European entities. Organizations that have not migrated away from this retired library or have insufficient access controls are particularly vulnerable.

Summary

CVE-2025-53192 is a critical vulnerability in Apache Commons OGNL, a Java library used for parsing and evaluating Object-Graph Navigation Language expressions. The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of expression and command delimiters (CWE-146), which allows attackers to craft malicious OGNL expressions that bypass the library's blocklist restrictions. Although OgnlRuntime attempts to block dangerous classes and methods such as java.lang.Runtime, the blocklist is incomplete, enabling attackers to leverage unblocked class objects to execute arbitrary code on the host system. This can lead to full system compromise, including unauthorized data access, modification, and denial of service. The vulnerability affects all versions of Apache Commons OGNL, which is now a retired project with no planned fixes. Exploitation requires no privileges but does require user interaction, such as submitting malicious input to an application that uses OGNL for expression evaluation. The CVSS v3.1 score of 8.8 indicates a high severity, with network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, user interaction needed, and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Since no patches are available, users must either migrate to alternative libraries or restrict access to trusted users to mitigate risk.

CWE-146Improper Neutralization of Expression/Command Delimiters (opens in a new tab)
Variant weakness
The product receives input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could be interpreted as expression or command delimiters when they are sent to a downstream component.
Developers should anticipate that inter-expression and inter-command delimiters will be injected/removed/manipulated in the input vectors of their product. Use an appropriate combination of denylists and allowlists to ensure only valid, expected and appropriate input is processed by the system.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Implementation · Output Encoding
While it is risky to use dynamically-generated query strings, code, or commands that mix control and data together, sometimes it may be unavoidable. Properly quote arguments and escape any special characters within those arguments.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
Server Side Request Forgery Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards (opens in a new tab)
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Command Delimiters (opens in a new tab)
Argument Injection (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 4 Nov 2025, 21:55 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-146

Technical details

References

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