CVE-2017-7536 in Hibernate Validator
Summary
by MITRE
In Hibernate Validator 5.2.x before 5.2.5 final, 5.3.x, and 5.4.x, it was found that when the security manager's reflective permissions, which allows it to access the private members of the class, are granted to Hibernate Validator, a potential privilege escalation can occur. By allowing the calling code to access those private members without the permission an attacker may be able to validate an invalid instance and access the private member value via ConstraintViolation#getInvalidValue().
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/20/2023
Hibernate Validator represents a critical security vulnerability in versions 5.2.x before 5.2.5 final, 5.3.x, and 5.4.x that exposes a privilege escalation risk through improper handling of reflective access permissions. This vulnerability operates within the Java security model where security managers control access to reflective operations, which are essential for framework validation mechanisms. The flaw occurs when security manager permissions are improperly configured to grant reflective access to Hibernate Validator's internal components, creating an avenue for malicious code execution.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability stems from the framework's inability to properly enforce access controls when validating objects through constraint violations. When a security manager allows reflective access to private members, Hibernate Validator can traverse class hierarchies and access private fields that should normally be restricted. This occurs during constraint validation operations where the framework attempts to access object state for validation purposes. The vulnerability specifically manifests when ConstraintViolation#getInvalidValue() is invoked, as this method can return private member values that should remain inaccessible to untrusted code. This represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and undermines the security boundaries established by the Java security manager.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it enables attackers to bypass security controls that would normally prevent access to sensitive private data within validated objects. An attacker with sufficient privileges to manipulate the security manager configuration can exploit this weakness to extract private member values from objects being validated, potentially exposing sensitive information such as authentication tokens, cryptographic keys, or personal data. The vulnerability affects applications that rely on Hibernate Validator for input validation and may be particularly dangerous in environments where security managers are used to enforce sandboxed execution environments. This flaw can be leveraged in combination with other vulnerabilities to escalate privileges and gain deeper access to application resources, making it a significant concern for enterprise applications that depend on proper security boundaries.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected Hibernate Validator versions to 5.2.5 final or later, 5.3.x, or 5.4.x releases that contain the necessary security fixes. Organizations should also review their security manager configurations to ensure that reflective permissions are properly restricted and that only trusted code has access to private members. The implementation of proper access control mechanisms and regular security audits can help prevent unauthorized reflective access. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and represents a security misconfiguration that violates the principle of least privilege. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability maps to privilege escalation techniques and can be categorized under T1068 (Local Privilege Escalation) and T1070 (Indicator Removal on Host) as attackers may use it to bypass security controls and potentially cover their tracks through manipulated validation processes. Organizations should implement comprehensive monitoring for suspicious validation activities and ensure that security manager policies are enforced consistently across all application environments to prevent exploitation of this privilege escalation vector.