Skip to content
Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2023-38647 json

Apache Helix: Deserialization vulnerability in Helix workflow and REST

published 3y ago modified 2mo ago also GHSA-jhcr-hph9-g7wm , EUVD-2023-2088

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An attacker can use SnakeYAML to deserialize java.net.URLClassLoader and make it load a JAR from a specified URL, and then deserialize javax.script.ScriptEngineManager to load code using that ClassLoader. This unbounded deserialization can likely lead to remote code execution. The code can be run in Helix REST start and Workflow creation.

Affect all the versions lower and include 1.2.0.

Affected products: helix-core, helix-rest

Mitigation: Short term, stop using any YAML based configuration and workflow creation.                   Long term, all Helix version bumping up to 1.3.0

Patch / fix

  • maven org.apache.helix:helix-core 1.3.0
  • maven org.apache.helix:helix-rest 1.3.0
  • apache helix 1.3.0

Is CVE-2023-38647 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.

Check with Fencer

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2y ago

Exploit prediction

1.95% 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
CISA ADP 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
GitHub 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.apache.helix:helix-core
<1.3.0
1.3.0
maven org.apache.helix:helix-rest
<1.3.0
1.3.0

Affected products

  • Apache Software Foundation Apache Helix
  • apache helix

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.