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Deserialization of Untrusted Data

CVE-2020-9484

Severity High
Score 7/10

Summary

When using Apache Tomcat versions 10.0.0-M1 through 10.0.0-M4, 9.0.0.M1 through 9.0.34, 8.5.0 through 8.5.54, 8.0.x and 7.0.0 through 7.0.103 if a) an attacker is able to control the contents and name of a file on the server; and b) the server is configured to use the PersistenceManager with a FileStore; and c) the PersistenceManager is configured with sessionAttributeValueClassNameFilter="null" (the default unless a SecurityManager is used) or a sufficiently lax filter to allow the attacker provided object to be deserialized; and d) the attacker knows the relative file path from the storage location used by FileStore to the file the attacker has control over; then, using a specifically crafted request, the attacker will be able to trigger remote code execution via deserialization of the file under their control. Note that all of conditions a) to d) must be true for the attack to succeed.

  • HIGH
  • LOCAL
  • HIGH
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • HIGH
  • HIGH

CWE-502 - Deserialization of Untrusted Data

Deserialization of untrusted data vulnerabilities enable an attacker to replace or manipulate a serialized object, replacing it with malicious data. When the object is deserialized at the victim's end the malicious data is able to compromise the victim’s system. The exploit can be devastating, its impact may range from privilege escalation, broken access control, or denial of service attacks to allowing unauthorized access to the application's internal code and logic which can compromise the entire system.

Advisory Timeline

  • Published