CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-39150

Deserialization of Untrusted Data

Published: Aug 23, 2021 | Modified: Nov 07, 2023
CVSS 3.x
8.5
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
6 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
8.5 IMPORTANT
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to request data from internal resources that are not publicly available only by manipulating the processed input stream with a Java runtime version 14 to 8. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStreams security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. If you rely on XStreams default blacklist of the Security Framework, you will have to use at least version 1.4.18.

Weakness

The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Xstream Xstream_project * 1.4.18 (excluding)
Red Hat Data Grid 8.3.0 RedHat xstream *
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 RedHat xstream-0:1.3.1-16.el7_9 *
Red Hat Integration RedHat xstream *
Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus RedHat xstream *
RHDM 7.12.0 RedHat xstream *
RHPAM 7.12.0 RedHat xstream *
Libxstream-java Ubuntu bionic *
Libxstream-java Ubuntu focal *
Libxstream-java Ubuntu hirsute *
Libxstream-java Ubuntu impish *
Libxstream-java Ubuntu trusty *
Libxstream-java Ubuntu xenial *

Extended Description

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.

Potential Mitigations

  • Make fields transient to protect them from deserialization.
  • An attempt to serialize and then deserialize a class containing transient fields will result in NULLs where the transient data should be. This is an excellent way to prevent time, environment-based, or sensitive variables from being carried over and used improperly.

References