OpenCms is a popular open-source Java framework developed by Alkacon Software. OpenCms provides a platform for users to design and develop web applications. The latest version of the framework is 16.0. 

About CVE-2023-42344

CVE-2023-42344 is a critical vulnerability where users can execute code without authentication.  An attacker can execute malicious requests on the OpenCms server. When the requests are successful vulnerable OpenCms can be exploited resulting in an unauthenticated XXE vulnerability. Based on research OpenCMS versions from 9.0.0 to 10.5.0 are vulnerable.

Detecting the Vulnerability with Qualys WAS

Qualys has released QID 150773: OpenCMS Unauthenticated XXE Vulnerability (CVE-2023-42344) to detect vulnerable OpenCMS versions. When a Qualys WAS scan is launched, an HTTP POST request is sent to the server. The request is crafted with an XXE payload to access the server file /etc/passwd. The response, confirms the vulnerability of the target.

Request:

Response:

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0
Server: Apache-Chemistry-OpenCMIS/0.7.0
Content-Type: text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2023 17:49:13 GMT
Connection: close
Content-Length: 11337
 
HTTP Status 400 - invalidArgument
Invalid query request: javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException
 - with linked exception:
[java.io.FileNotFoundException: /abcxyz/root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-timesync:x:100:103:systemd Time Synchronization,,,:/run/systemd:/bin/false
systemd-network:x:101:104:systemd Network Management,,,:/run/systemd/netif:/bin/false
systemd-resolve:x:102:105:systemd Resolver,,,:/run/systemd/resolve:/bin/false
systemd-bus-proxy:x:103:106:systemd Bus Proxy,,,:/run/systemd:/bin/false
messagebus:x:104:107::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
mysql:x:105:108:MySQL Server,,,:/nonexistent:/bin/false
tomcat8:x:106:109::/usr/share/tomcat8:/bin/false (No such file or directory)]
org.apache.chemistry.opencmis.commons.exceptions.CmisInvalidArgumentException: Invalid query request: javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException
 - with linked exception:

QID details are available in knowledgebase :

To check your OpenCms, configure your scan by ensuring QID 150773 is included in your options profile. A vulnerability scan against a web application that uses a vulnerable OpenCMS version will report the detection. 

Scan reports for a vulnerable application will show an increase in the number of detections. Refer to the report under a Severity of 1 and Injection OWASP Top 10 Category.

Solution

Customers are advised to upgrade to OpenCMS 10.5.1 or later to patch the vulnerability. Use the "Retest" option to confirm the mitigation of the vulnerability. 

Credits

• http://www.opencms.org/en/
• https://labs.watchtowr.com/xxe-you-can-depend-on-me-opencms/
• https://hub.docker.com/r/alkacon/opencms-docker/tags?page=1&ref=labs.watchtowr.com
• http://www.opencms.org/en/download/opencms.html

Additional Contributors

Hitesh Kadu, Senior Web Application Engineer, Qualys