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Critical

Deserialization of untrusted data in InternalAttributeHandler in pac4j

Type: advisorySources: OSV

pac4j is a security framework for Java. `pac4j-core` prior to version 4.0.0 is affected by a Java deserialization vulnerability. The vulnerability affects systems that store externally controlled values in attributes of the `UserProfile` class from pac4j-core. It can be exploited by providing an attribute that contains a serialized Java object with a special prefix `{#sb64}` and Base64 encoding. This issue may lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE) in the worst case. Although a `RestrictedObjectInputStream` is in place, that puts some restriction on what classes can be deserialized, it still allows a broad range of java packages and potentially exploitable with different gadget chains. pac4j versions 4.0.0 and greater are not affected by this issue. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2023-25581
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
4 Nov 2026, 09:09 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

Deserialization of untrusted data in InternalAttributeHandler in pac4j

core-osv · Original source

Published 10 Oct 2024, 15:49 UTC

pac4j is a security framework for Java. `pac4j-core` prior to version 4.0.0 is affected by a Java deserialization vulnerability. The vulnerability affects systems that store externally controlled values in attributes of the `UserProfile` class from pac4j-core. It can be exploited by providing an attribute that contains a serialized Java object with a special prefix `{#sb64}` and Base64 encoding. This issue may lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE) in the worst case. Although a `RestrictedObjectInputStream` is in place, that puts some restriction on what classes can be deserialized, it still allows a broad range of java packages and potentially exploitable with different gadget chains. pac4j versions 4.0.0 and greater are not affected by this issue. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

osv:CVE-2023-25581
Complete source record
{
  "id": "bdaf42cb383451c8789ebd3b42d4578cfe202ce3260f1b56207282d9baa64498",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-25581",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Deserialization of untrusted data in InternalAttributeHandler in pac4j",
    "summary": "pac4j is a security framework for Java. `pac4j-core` prior to version 4.0.0 is affected by a Java deserialization vulnerability. The vulnerability affects systems that store externally controlled values in attributes of the `UserProfile` class from pac4j-core. It can be exploited by providing an attribute that contains a serialized Java object with a special prefix `{#sb64}` and Base64 encoding. This issue may lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE) in the worst case. Although a `RestrictedObjectInputStream` is in place, that puts some restriction on what classes can be deserialized, it still allows a broad range of java packages and potentially exploitable with different gadget chains. pac4j versions 4.0.0 and greater are not affected by this issue. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2023-25581",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "critical",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2023-25581",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2023-25581",
        "GHSA-76mw-6p95-x9x5"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V4",
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/pac4j/pac4j",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "332a4f2d38015495108b225a3f7353a165969f90"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "4.0.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "4.0.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "DESCRIPTION"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "pac4j-4.0.0-RC3",
            "pac4j-4.0.0-RC2",
            "pac4j-4.0.0-RC1",
            "pac4j-3.4.0",
            "pac4j-3.3.0",
            "pac4j-3.2.0",
            "pac4j-3.1.0",
            "pac4j-3.0.1",
            "pac4j-3.0.0",
            "pac4j-3.0.0-RC2",
            "pac4j-3.0.0-RC1",
            "pac4j-2.1.0",
            "pac4j-2.0.0",
            "pac4j-2.0.0-RC2",
            "pac4j-2.0.0-RC1",
            "pac4j-1.9.3",
            "pac4j-1.9.2",
            "pac4j-1.9.1",
            "pac4j-1.9.0",
            "pac4j-1.8.3",
            "pac4j-1.8.2",
            "pac4j-1.8.1",
            "pac4j-1.8.0",
            "pac4j-1.8.0-RC1",
            "pac4j-1.7.0",
            "pac4j-1.6.0",
            "pac4j-1.6.0-RC1",
            "pac4j-1.5.1",
            "pac4j-1.5.0",
            "pac4j-1.4.1",
            "pac4j-1.4.0",
            "scribe-up-1.3.1",
            "scribe-up-1.3.0",
            "scribe-up-1.1.0",
            "scribe-up-1.0.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-25581.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:34.391944013Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/pac4j/pac4j/blob/5834aeb22ad3a4369dfa572be60d7b20f5784a8f/pac4j-core/src/main/java/org/pac4j/core/profile/InternalAttributeHandler.java#L95",
        "https://portswigger.net/web-security/deserialization",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/25xxx/CVE-2023-25581.json",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-25581",
        "https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2022-085_pac4j/",
        "https://github.com/frohoff/ysoserial"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-502"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/25xxx/CVE-2023-25581.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2023-25581",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 501345,
  "published_at": "2024-10-10T15:49:28.316+00:00"
}