Deserialization of Untrusted Data, Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Apache UIMA Java SDK, Apache UIMA Java SDK, Apache UIMA Java SDK, Apache UIMA Java SDK.This issue affects Apache UIMA Java SDK: before 3.5.0.
Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.5.0, which fixes the issue.
There are several locations in the code where serialized Java objects are deserialized without verifying the data. This affects in particular:
Note that the UIMA framework by default does not start any remotely accessible services (i.e. Vinci) that would be vulnerable to this issue. A user or developer would need to make an active choice to start such a service. However, users or developers may use the CasIOUtils in their own applications and services to parse serialized CAS data. They are affected by this issue unless they ensure that the data passed to CasIOUtils is not a serialized Java object.
When using Vinci or using CasIOUtils in own services/applications, the unrestricted deserialization of Java-serialized CAS files may allow arbitrary (remote) code execution.
As a remedy, it is possible to set up a global or context-specific ObjectInputFilter (cf. https://openjdk.org/jeps/290 and https://openjdk.org/jeps/415 ) if running UIMA on a Java version that supports it.
Note that Java 1.8 does not support the ObjectInputFilter, so there is no remedy when running on this out-of-support platform. An upgrade to a recent Java version is strongly recommended if you need to secure an UIMA version that is affected by this issue.
To mitigate the issue on a Java 9+ platform, you can configure a filter pattern through the jdk.serialFilter system property using a semicolon as a separator:
To allow deserializing Java-serialized binary CASes, add the classes:
To allow deserializing CPE Checkpoint data, add the following classes (and any custom classes your application uses to store its checkpoints):
Make sure to use !* as the final component to the filter pattern to disallow deserialization of any classes not listed in the pattern.
Apache UIMA 3.5.0 uses tightly scoped ObjectInputFilters when reading Java-serialized data depending on the type of data being expected. Configuring a global filter is not necessary with this version.
The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently verifying that the resulting data will be valid.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uimaj | Apache | * | 3.5.0 (excluding) |
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.