Apache ActiveMQ Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability

CVE-2022-41678 → View on GitHub ↗ View on CVE.org ↗ View on NVD ↗

Description

Once an user is authenticated on Jolokia, he can potentially trigger arbitrary code execution. 

In details, in ActiveMQ configurations, jetty allows org.jolokia.http.AgentServlet to handler request to /api/jolokia

org.jolokia.http.HttpRequestHandler#handlePostRequest is able to create JmxRequest through JSONObject. And calls to org.jolokia.http.HttpRequestHandler#executeRequest.

Into deeper calling stacks, org.jolokia.handler.ExecHandler#doHandleRequest is able to invoke through refection.

And then, RCE is able to be achieved via jdk.management.jfr.FlightRecorderMXBeanImpl which exists on Java version above 11.

1 Call newRecording.

2 Call setConfiguration. And a webshell data hides in it.

3 Call startRecording.

4 Call copyTo method. The webshell will be written to a .jsp file.

The mitigation is to restrict (by default) the actions authorized on Jolokia, or disable Jolokia.
A more restrictive Jolokia configuration has been defined in default ActiveMQ distribution. We encourage users to upgrade to ActiveMQ distributions version including updated Jolokia configuration: 5.16.6, 5.17.4, 5.18.0, 6.0.0.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
—
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2023-11-28 18:30:23 UTC
Updated
2025-11-04 16:47:36 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2023-11-28 23:28:47 UTC
NVD published
2023-11-28

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
93.62% 99.84%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
8.8 3.1 —
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

Identifiers

Type Value
GHSA GHSA-53v4-42fg-g287 ↗
CVE CVE-2022-41678 ↗

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-287 Improper Authentication
CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data

Credits

  • sunSUNQ (analyst)

Affected packages (2)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
maven org.apache.activemq:apache-activemq < 5.16.6 5.16.6 —
maven org.apache.activemq:apache-activemq >= 5.17.0, < 5.17.4 5.17.4 —

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence