CVE-2022-21420 in Coherence
Summary
by MITRE • 04/20/2022
Vulnerability in the Oracle Coherence product of Oracle Fusion Middleware (component: Core). Supported versions that are affected are 12.2.1.3.0, 12.2.1.4.0 and 14.1.1.0.0. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via T3 to compromise Oracle Coherence. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle Coherence. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 9.8 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/25/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-21420 represents a critical security flaw within Oracle Coherence, a distributed computing platform that forms part of Oracle Fusion Middleware. This vulnerability exists within the Core component of Oracle Coherence and affects specific version releases including 12.2.1.3.0, 12.2.1.4.0, and 14.1.1.0.0, making it particularly concerning for organizations maintaining these software versions. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that attackers can leverage it without requiring specialized skills or significant resources, posing a substantial risk to enterprise environments that depend on this middleware technology.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient authentication mechanisms within the T3 protocol implementation used by Oracle Coherence for communication between nodes in a distributed system. The T3 protocol, which operates on TCP port 7574 by default, serves as a primary communication channel for Coherence clusters and is designed to facilitate cluster formation and data replication. Attackers can exploit this weakness by establishing network connections to the T3 endpoint without proper authentication, allowing them to execute arbitrary commands against the target Coherence instance. This flaw essentially bypasses the expected security controls that should prevent unauthorized access to the distributed computing infrastructure.
The operational impact of successfully exploiting CVE-2022-21420 is severe and encompasses complete system compromise of the affected Oracle Coherence instances. An attacker who gains access through this vulnerability can achieve full control over the Coherence cluster, potentially leading to data exfiltration, manipulation of distributed data structures, disruption of business operations, and use of the compromised system as a pivot point for further attacks within the network. The CVSS score of 9.8 reflects the high severity of this vulnerability, with impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability, meaning that an attacker could simultaneously access sensitive data, modify system state, and cause service disruptions. The unauthenticated nature of the attack means that organizations cannot rely on network-level access controls to prevent exploitation, as the vulnerability allows direct compromise regardless of network segmentation or firewall configurations.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement network-level mitigations such as blocking access to TCP port 7574 from external networks and restricting internal access to only trusted systems. The most effective long-term solution involves applying the vendor-provided patches and updates from Oracle that address the authentication bypass in the T3 protocol implementation. Security teams should also consider implementing network monitoring to detect unusual T3 protocol activity and establish baseline behaviors for Coherence clusters to identify potential exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1190 for exploitation of remote services and T1071.004 for application layer protocol usage, highlighting the multi-faceted nature of the threat landscape that this vulnerability creates for enterprise security operations.