Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2019-10068 is a critical-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Kentico Xperience. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 0.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2019-10068 is a deserialization vulnerability affecting the staging service in Kentico CMS versions 12.0.x prior to 12.0.15, 11.0.x prior to 11.0.48, 10.0.x prior to 10.0.52, and all 9.x releases. The root cause is insufficient validation of security headers, which permits a crafted request to bypass authentication and supply attacker-controlled .NET objects for deserialization, directly enabling remote code execution on the host server. The flaw is tracked under CWE-502 and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8.
An unauthenticated attacker with network access can submit a malicious request to the staging endpoint, trigger unsafe deserialization, and obtain arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the Kentico process. No user interaction or credentials are required, and the attack can result in full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the affected server.
Kentico released hotfixes that address the issue for the supported branches, available via the vendor’s security updates page. The vulnerability is also catalogued in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list, and public exploit code has been published demonstrating remote command execution against unpatched instances.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2019-2129
Vulnerability Data
An issue was discovered in Kentico 12.0.x before 12.0.15, 11.0.x before 11.0.48, 10.0.x before 10.0.52, and 9.x versions. Due to a failure to validate security headers, it was possible for a specially crafted request to the staging service to bypass…
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the initial authentication and proceed to deserialize user-controlled .NET object input. This deserialization then led to unauthenticated remote code execution on the server where the Kentico instance was hosted.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 25 March 2022
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Penetration testing supplies malicious serialized objects, detecting unsafe deserialization and supporting corrective actions.
Evaluation of untrusted data handling (deserialization testing) reveals unsafe processing, which the required remediation process addresses.
Untrusted serialized data can be deserialized and observed inside the chamber, blocking gadget-chain exploitation outside the sandbox.
Validates or rejects untrusted serialized data before deserialization occurs.
Identifies and blocks malicious code introduced through deserialization of untrusted data at system boundaries.
Integrity verification of serialized information can detect tampering before deserialization occurs.
Provenance of associated data allows detection of untrusted sources before deserialization or processing occurs.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
PR.PS-02 addresses only post-deployment updates/patching and cannot prevent introduction of unsafe deserialization code, yet it can remediate some instances when the flaw exists in outdated libraries or components.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing includes validation of deserialization routines and the use of untrusted data, reducing the likelihood that unsafe object reconstruction will be deployed.
Requiring vetted libraries, regular updates and SAST before release reduces the likelihood that deserialization logic will accept and act on attacker-controlled serialized objects.
Regular scanning of third-party libraries and timely patching reduce the likelihood that unsafe deserialization vulnerabilities remain active.
Mandatory malware scanning of data received over networks or storage media intercepts malicious serialized payloads before they are deserialized by the target application.