Adobe Security Bulletin
Security updates available for ColdFusion | APSB19-14
Bulletin ID Date Published Priority
APSB19-14 March 1, 2019 1

Summary

Adobe has released security updates for ColdFusion versions 2018, 2016 and 11. These updates resolve a critical vulnerability that could lead to arbitrary code execution in the context of the running ColdFusion service.   

Adobe is aware of a report that CVE-2019-7816 has been exploited in the wild.  

Affected Versions

Product Affected Versions Platform
ColdFusion 2018 Update 2 and earlier versions All
ColdFusion 2016 Update 9 and earlier versions All
ColdFusion 11 Update 17 and earlier versions All

Note:

Note: This attack requires the ability to upload executable code to a web-accessible directory, and then execute that code via an HTTP request.  Restricting requests to directories where uploaded files are stored will mitigate this attack.

Solution

Adobe categorizes these updates with the following priority rating and recommends users update their installations to the newest versions:

Product Updated Version Platform Priority rating Availability
ColdFusion 2018 Update 3 All 1 Tech note
ColdFusion 2016  Update 10 All 1 Tech note
ColdFusion 11 Update 18 All
1 Tech note

Adobe recommends customers apply the security configuration settings as outlined on the ColdFusion Security page as well as review the respective Lockdown guides.

Vulnerability Details

Vulnerability Category Vulnerability Impact Severity CVE Numbers
File Upload Restriction Bypass  Arbitrary code execution Critical CVE-2019-7816

Acknowledgements

Adobe would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for reporting these issues and for working with Adobe to help protect our customers:

  • Charlie Arehart, Moshe Ruzin, Josh Ford, Jason Solarek, and Bridge Catalog Team

ColdFusion JDK Requirement

COLDFUSION 2018 HF1 and above

For Application Servers

On JEE installations, set the following JVM flag, "-Djdk.serialFilter= !org.mozilla.**;!com.sun.syndication.**;!org.apache.commons.beanutils.**", in the respective startup file depending on the type of Application Server being used.

For example:

Apache Tomcat Application Server: edit JAVA_OPTS in the ‘Catalina.bat/sh’ file

WebLogic Application Server:  edit JAVA_OPTIONS in the ‘startWeblogic.cmd’ file

WildFly/EAP Application Server:  edit JAVA_OPTS in the ‘standalone.conf’ file

Set the JVM flags on a JEE installation of ColdFusion, not on a standalone installation.

COLDFUSION 2016 HF7 and above

This security update requires ColdFusion to be on JDK 8u121 or higher.   Adobe recommends that you must manually update your ColdFusion JDK/JRE to the latest version. In case you do not update the JDK/JRE, simply applying the update would NOT secure the server. 

For Application Servers

Additionally, on JEE installations, set the following JVM flag, "-Djdk.serialFilter= !org.mozilla.**;!com.sun.syndication.**;!org.apache.commons.beanutils.**", in the respective startup file depending on the type of Application Server being used.  

For example:          

On Apache Tomcat Application Server, edit JAVA_OPTS in the ‘Catalina.bat/sh’ file          

On WebLogic Application Server, edit JAVA_OPTIONS in the ‘startWeblogic.cmd’ file          

On a WildFly/EAP Application Server, edit JAVA_OPTS in the ‘standalone.conf’ file  

Set the JVM flags on a JEE installation of ColdFusion, not on a standalone installation

COLDFUSION 11 HF15 and above

This security update requires ColdFusion to be on JDK 7u131 or JDK 8u121 or higher.   Adobe recommends that you must manually update your ColdFusion JDK/JRE to the latest version. In case you do not update the JDK/JRE, simply applying the update would NOT secure the server.

For Application Servers

Additionally, on J2EE installations, set the following JVM flag, "-Djdk.serialFilter= !org.mozilla.**;!com.sun.syndication.**;!org.apache.commons.beanutils.**", in the respective startup file depending on the type of Application Server being used.  

For example:  

On Apache Tomcat Application Server, edit JAVA_OPTS in the ‘Catalina.bat/sh’ file          

On WebLogic Application Server, edit JAVA_OPTIONS in the ‘startWeblogic.cmd’ file          

On a WildFly/EAP Application Server, edit JAVA_OPTS in the ‘standalone.conf’ file  

Set the JVM flags on a JEE installation of ColdFusion, not on a standalone installation

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