CVE-2023-39219 in PingFederate
Summary
by MITRE • 10/25/2023
PingFederate Administrative Console dependency contains a weakness where console becomes unresponsive with crafted Java class loading enumeration requests
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/15/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-39219 affects PingFederate Administrative Console through a weakness in its dependency handling mechanism that allows for crafted Java class loading enumeration requests to cause console unresponsiveness. This issue represents a denial of service vulnerability that specifically targets the administrative interface of the PingFederate identity management platform, which is widely used for authentication and authorization services in enterprise environments. The flaw manifests when the console processes maliciously constructed requests that attempt to enumerate Java classes through the dependency resolution system, leading to resource exhaustion or infinite loops that render the administrative interface unavailable to legitimate users.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and improper handling of class loading enumeration requests within the PingFederate console's dependency management subsystem. When the system receives crafted requests that attempt to traverse or enumerate Java class hierarchies through the dependency resolution mechanism, the console fails to properly sanitize or limit the scope of these requests. This weakness allows an attacker to submit malicious payloads that cause the console to consume excessive computational resources or enter into problematic execution paths that prevent normal operation. The vulnerability is particularly concerning as it affects the administrative interface itself rather than backend services, making it difficult to recover from without direct console access or system restarts.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates significant disruption for organizations relying on PingFederate for identity management, as the administrative console is essential for configuring and managing authentication policies, user access controls, and system settings. When the console becomes unresponsive due to this vulnerability, administrators lose the ability to perform critical tasks such as user provisioning, policy updates, certificate management, and system monitoring. The impact extends beyond simple unavailability as it can prevent emergency responses to security incidents, system maintenance activities, and routine administrative duties. Organizations may experience service degradation or complete operational paralysis in their identity management infrastructure, potentially affecting thousands of users who depend on the system for authentication and authorization services.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which describes unrestricted input to a Java class loading mechanism, and represents a specific instance of improper input validation that leads to denial of service conditions. From an attacker's perspective, this weakness maps to ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which involves network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion, and T1566.002, which covers spearphishing with social engineering techniques to gain access to systems. Organizations should implement network-level protections such as rate limiting and request filtering to prevent excessive class enumeration requests from reaching the console. Additionally, applying the vendor-provided patches and updates is critical for remediation, as PingFederate has released fixes addressing this specific vulnerability. Administrative access controls should be strengthened to limit who can submit requests to the console, and monitoring should be implemented to detect unusual patterns of class loading requests that may indicate exploitation attempts. Regular security assessments of the administrative interface and dependency management systems should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other components of the identity management infrastructure.