ManageEngine Applications Manager 12 and 13 before build 13200, allows unserialization of unsafe Java objects. The vulnerability can be exploited by remote user without authentication and it allows to execute remote code compromising the application as well as the operating system. As Application Managers RMI registry is running with privileges of system administrator, by exploiting this vulnerability an attacker gains highest privileges on the underlying operating system.
The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manageengine_applications_manager | Zohocorp | 12.0 (including) | 12.0 (including) |
| Manageengine_applications_manager | Zohocorp | 13.0 (including) | 13.0 (including) |
It is often convenient to serialize objects for communication or to save them for later use. However, deserialized data or code can often be modified without using the provided accessor functions if it does not use cryptography to protect itself. Furthermore, any cryptography would still be client-side security – which is a dangerous security assumption. Data that is untrusted can not be trusted to be well-formed. When developers place no restrictions on “gadget chains,” or series of instances and method invocations that can self-execute during the deserialization process (i.e., before the object is returned to the caller), it is sometimes possible for attackers to leverage them to perform unauthorized actions, like generating a shell.