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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2023-25581 json

Deserialization of untrusted data in InternalAttributeHandler in pac4j

published 2y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2024-2974 , GHSA-76mw-6p95-x9x5

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, GitHub
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.9%
EPSS 1.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

pac4j is a security framework for Java. `pac4j-core` prior to version 4.0.0 is affected by a Java deserialization vulnerability. The vulnerability affects systems that store externally controlled values in attributes of the `UserProfile` class from pac4j-core. It can be exploited by providing an attribute that contains a serialized Java object with a special prefix `{#sb64}` and Base64 encoding. This issue may lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE) in the worst case. Although a `RestrictedObjectInputStream` is in place, that puts some restriction on what classes can be deserialized, it still allows a broad range of java packages and potentially exploitable with different gadget chains. pac4j versions 4.0.0 and greater are not affected by this issue. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Patch / fix

  • maven org.pac4j:pac4j-core 4.0.0
  • pac4j pac4j 4.0.0

Is CVE-2023-25581 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2y ago

Exploit prediction

1.94% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 80% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-15).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 9.2 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
GitHub 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 4.0 9.2 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.pac4j:pac4j-core
<4.0.0
4.0.0

Affected products

  • pac4j pac4j

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.