CVE-2023-40044

In WS_FTP Server versions prior to 8.7.4 and 8.8.2, a pre-authenticated attacker could leverage a .NET deserialization vulnerability in the Ad Hoc Transfer module to execute remote commands on the underlying WS_FTP Server operating system.

Weakness

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

Affected Software

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.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/586.html

References

• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174917/Progress-Software-WS_FTP-Unauthenticated-Remote-Code-Execution.html
• https://attackerkb.com/topics/bn32f9sNax/cve-2023-40044
• https://censys.com/cve-2023-40044/
• https://community.progress.com/s/article/WS-FTP-Server-Critical-Vulnerability-September-2023
• https://www.assetnote.io/resources/research/rce-in-progress-ws-ftp-ad-hoc-via-iis-http-modules-cve-2023-40044
• https://www.progress.com/ws_ftp
• https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2023/09/29/etr-critical-vulnerabilities-in-ws_ftp-server/
• https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/02/ws_ftp_update/
• http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174917/Progress-Software-WS_FTP-Unauthenticated-Remote-Code-Execution.html
• https://attackerkb.com/topics/bn32f9sNax/cve-2023-40044
• https://censys.com/cve-2023-40044/
• https://community.progress.com/s/article/WS-FTP-Server-Critical-Vulnerability-September-2023
• https://www.assetnote.io/resources/research/rce-in-progress-ws-ftp-ad-hoc-via-iis-http-modules-cve-2023-40044
• https://www.progress.com/ws_ftp
• https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2023/09/29/etr-critical-vulnerabilities-in-ws_ftp-server/
• https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/02/ws_ftp_update/