Is CVE-2021-41616 actively exploited?

No active exploitation of CVE-2021-41616 has been confirmed so far. Continue monitoring, as exploit status can change.

Can CVE-2021-41616 be exploited remotely?

Yes. CVE-2021-41616 is exploitable remotely over the network (CVSS attack vector: Network).

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-41616?

CVE-2021-41616 has a CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL).

HOME VULNERABILITIESCVE-2021-41616

CRITICAL

CVE-2021-41616

CWE-502Published: September 30, 2021· Updated: Jun 17, 2026

9.8

CVSS v3.1

Official Description

Apache DB DdlUtils 1.0 included a BinaryObjectsHelper that was intended for use when migrating database data with a SQL data type of BINARY, VARBINARY, LONGVARBINARY, or BLOB between databases using the ddlutils features. The BinaryObjectsHelper class was insecure and used ObjectInputStream.readObject without validating that the input data was safe to deserialize. Please note that DdlUtils is no longer being actively developed. To address the insecurity of the BinaryObjectHelper class, the following changes to DdlUtils have been made: (1) BinaryObjectsHelper.java has been deleted from the DdlUtils source repository and the DdlUtils feature of propagating data of SQL binary types is therefore no longer present in DdlUtils; (2) The ddlutils-1.0 release has been removed from the Apache Release Distribution Infrastructure; (3) The DdlUtils web site has been updated to indicate that DdlUtils is now available only as source code, not as a packaged release.

NVD Source

Technical Analysis

CVE-2021-41616 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.

The vulnerability requires no privileges and no user interaction, making it a prime target for automated exploitation campaigns and worm-like propagation.

A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 9.8.

From a weakness classification perspective (CWE-502): Insecure deserialization vulnerabilities allow attackers to inject malicious objects during deserialization, potentially enabling remote code execution.