CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-28500 — Adobe Livecycle Es4 security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

A Java insecure deserialization vulnerability in Adobe LiveCycle ES4 version 11.0 and earlier allows unauthenticated remote attackers to gain operating system code execution by submitting specially crafted Java serialized objects to a specific URL. Adobe LiveCycle ES4 version 11.0.1 and later may be vulnerable if the application is installed with Java environment 7u21 and earlier. Exploitation of the vulnerability depends on two factors: insecure deserialization methods used in the Adobe LiveCycle application, and the use of Java environments 7u21 and earlier. The code execution is performed in the context of the account that is running the Adobe LiveCycle application. If the account is privileged, exploitation provides privileged access to the operating system. NOTE: This vulnerability only affects products that are no longer supported by the maintainer.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2023-04-06
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
java/maven
Weaknesses
CWE-502

Affected products

  • adobe / livecycle_es4

Matched remediation archetype

Unsafe deserialization and object reconstruction

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Check exposure

  • Inventory serialization formats accepted from requests, queues, caches, files, cookies, and cross-service messages.
  • Trace whether untrusted input can select classes, types, callbacks, constructors, or object hooks during decoding.
  • Identify signing, schema validation, trust-boundary, and compatibility settings for each decoder.

Remediate safely

  • Replace native object deserialization with a data-only format and explicit schema validation.
  • If replacement is not immediate, use a safe decoder with a minimal type allowlist and disable polymorphic or executable hooks.
  • Update the affected library and add inert tests for unknown types, extra fields, malformed nesting, and unsigned data.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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