What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2021-32647: Post-authentication Remote Code Execution (RCE) in emissary:emissary
- Severity: critical (CVSS 9.1 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 2.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: yes
- Published: 2021-06-01 · updated 2026-06-17
- Weakness: CWE-74
Description
Emissary is a P2P based data-driven workflow engine. Affected versions of Emissary are vulnerable to post-authentication Remote Code Execution (RCE). The [`CreatePlace`](https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/emissary/blob/30c54ef16c6eb6ed09604a929939fb9f66868382/src/main/java/emissary/server/mvc/internal/CreatePlaceAction.java#L36) REST endpoint accepts an `sppClassName` parameter which is used to load an arbitrary class. This class is later instantiated using a constructor with the following signature: `<constructor>(String, String, String)`. An attacker may find a gadget (class) in the application classpath that could be used to achieve Remote Code Execution (RCE) or disrupt the application. Even though the chances to find a gadget (class) that allow arbitrary code execution are low, an attacker can still find gadgets that could potentially crash the application or leak sensitive data. As a work around disable network access to Emissary from untrusted sources.
Affected products
References
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/emissary/blob/30c54ef16c6eb6ed09604a929939fb9f66868382/src/main/java/emissary/server/mvc/internal/CreatePlaceAction.java#L36
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/emissary/security/advisories/GHSA-ph73-7v9r-wg32
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/emissary/blob/30c54ef16c6eb6ed09604a929939fb9f66868382/src/main/java/emissary/server/mvc/internal/CreatePlaceAction.java#L36
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/emissary/security/advisories/GHSA-ph73-7v9r-wg32
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