CVE-2022-47986
Published: 17 February 2023
Summary
CVE-2022-47986 is a critical-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Ibm Aspera Faspex. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, 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.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-7 (Least Functionality) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
IBM Aspera Faspex versions 4.4.2 Patch Level 1 and earlier contain a YAML deserialization vulnerability (CWE-502) that permits remote code execution. The flaw resides in an obsolete API endpoint that processes untrusted YAML input without proper validation, enabling an attacker to supply a malicious payload that the application deserializes and executes. The issue received a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8 and was assigned IBM X-Force ID 243512.
A remote attacker with no authentication or user interaction can send a specially crafted request to the exposed obsolete API call and achieve arbitrary code execution on the underlying system, resulting in full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.
IBM removed the vulnerable obsolete API in Faspex 4.4.2 Patch Level 2. The vendor advisory at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6952319 directs customers to upgrade to the fixed release to eliminate the affected code path.
Public exploit code for the issue has been posted to PacketStorm, and the CVE maintains a high EPSS score with a recorded peak of 0.9640.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-50700
Vulnerability details
IBM Aspera Faspex 4.4.2 Patch Level 1 and earlier could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system, caused by a YAML deserialization flaw. By sending a specially crafted obsolete API call, an attacker could exploit this…
more
vulnerability to execute arbitrary code on the system. The obsolete API call was removed in Faspex 4.4.2 PL2. IBM X-Force ID: 243512.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 21 February 2023
Related Threats
Threat-Actor AttributionAI
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Disabling or removing non-essential functions such as the obsolete API endpoint directly eliminates the YAML deserialization vector used for unauthenticated RCE.
Validating all information inputs would reject the malicious YAML documents that trigger unsafe deserialization and arbitrary code execution.
Applying the vendor patch that removes the vulnerable obsolete API call eliminates the flaw before exploitation can occur.