Alert - Oracle WebLogic Deserialization RCE Vulnerability

Number: AL19-008
Date: 30 April 2019

Audience

This ALERT is intended for IT professionals and managers. Recipients of this information may redistribute it with no restrictions.

Purpose

An ALERT is used to raise awareness of a recently identified cyber threat Cyber threatA threat actor, using the internet, who takes advantage of a known vulnerability in a product for the purposes of exploiting a network and the information the network carries. that may impact cyber information assets, and to provide additional detection DetectionThe monitoring and analyzing of system events in order to identify unauthorized attempts to access system resources. and mitigation advice to recipients. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Cyber securityThe protection of digital information, as well as the integrity of the infrastructure housing and transmitting digital information. More specifically, cyber security includes the body of technologies, processes, practices and response and mitigation measures designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access so as to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability. ("Cyber Centre") is also available to provide additional assistance regarding the content of this ALERT to recipients as requested.

Assessment

Oracle has released an out-of-band patch to update its WebLogic Server product. The patch addresses a vulnerability VulnerabilityA flaw or weakness in the design or implementation of an information system or its environment that could be exploited to adversely affect an organization's assets or operations. (CVE-2019-2725) in the Oracle WebLogic Server component of Oracle Fusion Middleware (subcomponent: Web Services) that allows a remote, unauthenticated malicious actor to run arbitrary commands via HTTP on the server.

The vulnerability affects Oracle WebLogic versions 10.3.6 and 12.1.3 and has been observed being actively exploited.

Suggested actions

The Cyber Centre recommends that organizations apply the updates released 26 April 2019, as part of the Oracle Security Alert Advisory regarding CVE-2019-2725 (see References for link).

If the updates cannot be immediately applied, firewall FirewallA security barrier placed between two networks that controls the amount and kinds of traffic that may pass between the two. This protects local system resources from being accessed from the outside. rules could be put in place to prevent requests being made to two URL paths exposed by this vulnerability ( /_async/* and /wls-wsat/*). Alternatively, organizations could choose to remove the vulnerable components (wls9_async_response.war and wls-wsat.war) and restart the WebLogic service.

References

Oracle Security Alert Advisory: https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/alert-cve-2019-2725-5466295.html

Note to readers

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) operates as part of the Communications Security Establishment. We are Canada's national authority on cyber security and we lead the government's response to cyber security events. As Canada's national computer security incident response team, the Cyber Centre works in close collaboration with government departments, critical infrastructure Critical infrastructureProcesses, systems, facilities, technologies, networks, assets, and services essential to the health, safety, security, or economic well-being of Canadians and the effective functioning of government. Critical infrastructure can be stand-alone or interconnected and interdependent within and across provinces, territories, and national borders. Disruptions of critical infrastructure could result in catastrophic loss of life, adverse economic effects, and significant harm to public confidence. , Canadian businesses and international partners to prepare for, respond to, mitigate, and recover from cyber events. We do this by providing authoritative advice and support, and coordinating information sharing and incident response. The Cyber Centre is outward-facing, welcoming partnerships that help build a stronger, more resilient cyber space in Canada.