CVE-2021-30179: Apache Dubbo Pre-auth RCE via Java deserialization in the Generic filter

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 4.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2021-06-01 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-502

Description

Apache Dubbo prior to 2.6.9 and 2.7.9 by default supports generic calls to arbitrary methods exposed by provider interfaces. These invocations are handled by the GenericFilter which will find the service and method specified in the first arguments of the invocation and use the Java Reflection API to make the final call. The signature for the $invoke or $invokeAsync methods is Ljava/lang/String;[Ljava/lang/String;[Ljava/lang/Object; where the first argument is the name of the method to invoke, the second one is an array with the parameter types for the method being invoked and the third one is an array with the actual call arguments. In addition, the caller also needs to set an RPC attachment specifying that the call is a generic call and how to decode the arguments. The possible values are: - true - raw.return - nativejava - bean - protobuf-json An attacker can control this RPC attachment and set it to nativejava to force the java deserialization of the byte array located in the third argument.

Affected products

Apache Software Foundation Apache Dubbo: from 2.5.0 through 2.5.10; from 2.6.0 before 2.6.9; from 2.7.0 before 2.7.10 — fixed in 2.6.9, 2.7.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Software Foundation Apache Dubbo 2.6.9, 2.7.10. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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