Adobe ColdFusion is an advanced commercial platform widely used for the development and deployment of web applications. Versions 2016 Update 3 and earlier, 11 Update 11 and earlier, and 10 Update 22 and earlier contain a critical security vulnerability that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the underlying server.

Technical Summary

The core of this vulnerability lies in the insecure deserialization of Java objects within the Apache BlazeDS library, which is included in the vulnerable versions of Adobe ColdFusion. Java deserialization is the process of converting a byte stream into a Java object. When this process is performed on untrusted or manipulated data without proper validation, it can lead to the instantiation of arbitrary classes present in the server’s classpath.

Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by creating malicious serialized Java objects and sending them to ColdFusion endpoints that use BlazeDS for data handling. When ColdFusion attempts to deserialize these manipulated objects, it can be forced to instantiate and execute arbitrary Java code. This allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to gain full control of the affected ColdFusion server.

Recommendations

To effectively address and mitigate this critical remote code execution vulnerability, administrators should immediately take the following actions:

• Update Adobe ColdFusion: Update to a version that includes the fix for this CVE. This means updating to:

  • ColdFusion 2016 Update 4 or later
  • ColdFusion 11 Update 12 or later
  • ColdFusion 10 Update 23 or later

• Apply Official Patches: Ensure that all available hotfixes and security updates provided by Adobe for the installed version of ColdFusion are applied promptly. Even if a full upgrade is not immediately possible, it is critical to apply the specific patch that resolves CVE-2017-3066.

• Monitor Suspicious Activity: Closely monitor ColdFusion server logs and network traffic to identify any exploitation attempts, such as anomalous requests or unexpected process executions.

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