CVE-2022-0573 in Artifactory
Summary
by MITRE • 05/16/2022
JFrog Artifactory before 7.36.1 and 6.23.41, is vulnerable to Insecure Deserialization of untrusted data which can lead to DoS, Privilege Escalation and Remote Code Execution when a specially crafted request is sent by a low privileged authenticated user due to insufficient validation of a user-provided serialized object.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/18/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-0573 represents a critical insecure deserialization flaw within JFrog Artifactory that affects versions prior to 7.36.1 and 6.23.41. This vulnerability stems from the application's failure to properly validate serialized objects received from authenticated users, creating a dangerous attack surface that can be exploited by malicious actors with low privilege access. The flaw manifests when the system processes user-provided serialized data without adequate sanitization or validation mechanisms, allowing attackers to craft malicious payloads that can be executed within the application's runtime environment. This issue directly maps to CWE-502 which categorizes insecure deserialization as a significant security weakness where applications deserialize untrusted data without proper validation, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability begins with an authenticated user sending a specially crafted serialized object to the Artifactory service. The application's deserialization process fails to validate the integrity and authenticity of the incoming data, allowing malicious serialized objects to be processed and executed within the application context. This flaw enables attackers to perform privilege escalation attacks, potentially elevating their access level from standard user to administrator or system-level privileges. The deserialization process itself becomes a vector for remote code execution, where crafted payloads can be interpreted and executed by the application server, leading to complete system compromise. The vulnerability's impact is particularly severe because it requires only low privilege authentication, making it accessible to users who might otherwise have limited access to the system.
The operational consequences of this vulnerability extend beyond simple exploitation to encompass broader security implications for organizations relying on JFrog Artifactory for artifact management and software supply chain operations. A successful exploitation can result in denial of service attacks that disrupt critical development workflows and CI/CD pipeline operations, potentially causing significant business disruption. The privilege escalation capability allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive artifacts, configuration files, and system resources that should remain protected. Remote code execution capabilities provide attackers with full control over the affected system, enabling them to install malware, exfiltrate data, or establish persistent access. Organizations using Artifactory as a central repository for software components face the risk of supply chain attacks where malicious code can be injected into trusted artifact repositories.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-0573 primarily focus on immediate patching of affected systems to version 7.36.1 or 6.23.41, which contain the necessary fixes for the deserialization vulnerability. Organizations should implement network segmentation and access controls to limit the exposure of Artifactory services to only necessary network segments. The application should be configured with strict deserialization validation mechanisms that reject any untrusted serialized objects, implementing proper input sanitization and object validation before processing user-provided data. Security monitoring should be enhanced to detect anomalous deserialization activities and unusual user behavior patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing application firewalls or intrusion detection systems that can identify and block malicious serialized object payloads. The remediation process should include comprehensive security testing to ensure that the patched version properly handles all forms of serialized data and that no other similar vulnerabilities exist within the application's deserialization logic. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of secure coding practices and the necessity of implementing robust input validation mechanisms in all applications that process external data.