CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2023-38647 — Apache Helix security vulnerability
An attacker can use SnakeYAML to deserialize java.net.URLClassLoader and make it load a JAR from a specified URL, and then deserialize javax.script.ScriptEngineManager to load code using that ClassLoader. This unbounded deserialization can likely lead to remote code execution. The code can be run in Helix REST start and Workflow creation. Affect all the versions lower and include 1.2.0. Affected products: helix-core, helix-rest Mitigation: Short term, stop using any YAML based configuration and workflow creation. Long term, all Helix version bumping up to 1.3.0
- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.8 (3.1)
- Published
- 2023-07-26
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- java/maven
- Weaknesses
- CWE-502
Affected products
- apache / helix
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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