Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS : XStream vulnerabilities (USN-5946-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 172496

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 ESM / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-5946-1 advisory.

- XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to load and execute arbitrary code from a remote host only by manipulating the processed input stream. A user is only affected if using the version out of the box with JDK 1.7u21 or below. However, this scenario can be adjusted easily to an external Xalan that works regardless of the version of the Java runtime. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. XStream 1.4.18 uses no longer a blacklist by default, since it cannot be secured for general purpose. (CVE-2021-39139)

- XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to allocate 100% CPU time on the target system depending on CPU type or parallel execution of such a payload resulting in a denial of service only by manipulating the processed input stream. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. XStream 1.4.18 uses no longer a blacklist by default, since it cannot be secured for general purpose. (CVE-2021-39140)

- XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to load and execute arbitrary code from a remote host only by manipulating the processed input stream. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. XStream 1.4.18 uses no longer a blacklist by default, since it cannot be secured for general purpose. (CVE-2021-39141, CVE-2021-39145, CVE-2021-39146, CVE-2021-39147, CVE-2021-39148, CVE-2021-39149, CVE-2021-39151, CVE-2021-39154)

- XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker has sufficient rights to execute commands of the host only by manipulating the processed input stream. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. XStream 1.4.18 uses no longer a blacklist by default, since it cannot be secured for general purpose. (CVE-2021-39144)

- XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to request data from internal resources that are not publicly available only by manipulating the processed input stream with a Java runtime version 14 to 8. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. If you rely on XStream's default blacklist of the [Security Framework](https://x-stream.github.io/security.html#framework), you will have to use at least version 1.4.18. (CVE-2021-39150, CVE-2021-39152)

- XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. In affected versions this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to load and execute arbitrary code from a remote host only by manipulating the processed input stream, if using the version out of the box with Java runtime version 14 to 8 or with JavaFX installed. No user is affected, who followed the recommendation to setup XStream's security framework with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types. XStream 1.4.18 uses no longer a blacklist by default, since it cannot be secured for general purpose. (CVE-2021-39153)

- XStream serializes Java objects to XML and back again. Versions prior to 1.4.20 may allow a remote attacker to terminate the application with a stack overflow error, resulting in a denial of service only via manipulation the processed input stream. The attack uses the hash code implementation for collections and maps to force recursive hash calculation causing a stack overflow. This issue is patched in version 1.4.20 which handles the stack overflow and raises an InputManipulationException instead. A potential workaround for users who only use HashMap or HashSet and whose XML refers these only as default map or set, is to change the default implementation of java.util.Map and java.util per the code example in the referenced advisory. However, this implies that your application does not care about the implementation of the map and all elements are comparable. (CVE-2022-41966)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected libxstream-java package.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-5946-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 172496

File Name: ubuntu_USN-5946-1.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 3/13/2023

Updated: 10/16/2023

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Critical

Score: 9.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.5

Temporal Score: 5.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-39139

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.8

Temporal Score: 8.4

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:H/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:esm, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libxstream-java

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release, Host/Debian/dpkg-l

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 3/13/2023

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/23/2021

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability Due Dates: 3/31/2023

Exploitable With

Core Impact

Metasploit (VMware NSX Manager XStream unauthenticated RCE)

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-39139, CVE-2021-39140, CVE-2021-39141, CVE-2021-39144, CVE-2021-39145, CVE-2021-39146, CVE-2021-39147, CVE-2021-39148, CVE-2021-39149, CVE-2021-39150, CVE-2021-39151, CVE-2021-39152, CVE-2021-39153, CVE-2021-39154, CVE-2022-41966

USN: 5946-1