How the Log4Shell Flaw Works: Inside CVE-2021-44228's Devastating Impact

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Log4Shell (CVE-2021-44228) is a critical remote code execution vulnerability discovered in November 2021 by Chen Zhaojun of Alibaba Cloud Security Team within Apache Log4j 2, a widely used Java logging library. The flaw was publicly disclosed on Twitter on December 9, 2021, and is widely regarded as one of the most severe cybersecurity vulnerabilities of the past decade. It affected Log4j versions 2.14.1 and below, putting major organizations including Apple, Cloudflare, Twitter, and Minecraft at risk. The vulnerability stemmed from Log4j's JNDI Lookup feature, which allowed attackers to inject malicious payloads into logged request fields — such as the User-Agent header — to trigger remote code execution on vulnerable servers. Evidence suggests the flaw was being actively exploited by malicious actors even before its public disclosure, classifying it as a zero-day vulnerability.

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