CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2023-38689

Deserialization of Untrusted Data

Published: Aug 04, 2023 | Modified: Aug 11, 2023
CVSS 3.x
9.8
CRITICAL
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

Logistics Pipes is a modification (a.k.a. mod) for the computer game Minecraft Java Edition. The mod used Javas ObjectInputStream#readObject on untrusted data coming from clients or servers over the network resulting in possible remote code execution when sending specifically crafted network packets after connecting. The affected versions were released between 2013 and 2016 and the issue (back then unknown) was fixed in 2016 by a refactoring of the network IO code.
The issue is present in all Logistics Pipes versions ranged from 0.7.0.91 prior to 0.10.0.71, which were downloaded from different platforms summing up to multi-million downloads. For Minecraft version 1.7.10 the issue was fixed in build 0.10.0.71. Everybody on Minecraft 1.7.10 should check their version number of Logistics Pipes in their modlist and update, if the version number is smaller than 0.10.0.71. Any newer supported Minecraft version (like 1.12.2) never had a Logistics Pipes version with vulnerable code. The best available workaround for vulnerable versions is to play in singleplayer only or update to newer Minecraft versions and modpacks.

Weakness

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

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Logisticspipes Rs485 0.7.0.91 (including) 0.10.0.71 (excluding)

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