Skip to main content

Deserialization of Untrusted Data

CVE-2021-25641

Severity High
Score 9.8/10

Summary

Each Apache Dubbo server will set a serialization id to tell the clients which serialization protocol it is working on. But for Dubbo versions through 2.7.8, 2.6.9, or 3.0.0.preview, an attacker can choose which serialization id the Provider will use by tampering with the byte preamble flags, aka, not following the server's instruction. This means that if a weak deserializer such as the Kryo and FST are somehow in code scope (e.g. if Kryo is somehow a part of a dependency), a remote unauthenticated attacker can tell the Provider to use the weak deserializer, and then proceed to exploit it.

  • LOW
  • NETWORK
  • HIGH
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • NONE
  • 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