CVE-2021-41616: Ddlutils Ddlutils Vulnerability

CRITICAL
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-9378-f4v7-jgm4
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CVSS 9.8
CWE-502
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2021-41616 is a CRITICAL (CVSS 9.8) ddlutils vulnerability (CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data) affecting Ddlutils libraries in the Maven ecosystem. The issue involves ddlutils. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2021-41616 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2021-41616
GHSA Identifier GHSA-9378-f4v7-jgm4
Severity CRITICAL
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 9.8
CWE Classification CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data
Affected Product Ddlutils
Package Ecosystem Maven
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 9.8

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2021-41616

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Ddlutils dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

org.apache.ddlutils:ddlutils fixed: Latest secure release 
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.ddlutils</groupId>
    <artifactId>ddlutils</artifactId>
    <version>Latest secure release</version>
</dependency>
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.apache.ddlutils

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Java application is affected by CVE-2021-41616, inspect your build dependencies using the Maven Dependency Plugin:

mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.apache.ddlutils

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Ddlutils in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than the patched release), your application is affected.

Note: The mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.apache.ddlutils command inspects the resolved dependency graph declared in your project's POM files; it does not perform automated security scanning or inspect runtime dynamic classpaths. Always verify runtime container classpaths and shaded JARs.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data, where the product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently ensuring that the resulting data will be valid. In Ddlutils, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

Apache DB DdlUtils 1.0 included a BinaryObjectsHelper that was intended for use when migrating database data with a SQL data type of BINARY, VARBINARY, LONGVARBINARY, or BLOB between databases using the ddlutils features. The BinaryObjectsHelper class was insecure and used ObjectInputStream.readObject without validating that the input data was safe to deserialize. Please note that DdlUtils is no longer being actively developed. To address the insecurity of the BinaryObjectHelper class, the following changes to DdlUtils have been made: (1) BinaryObjectsHelper.java has been deleted from the DdlUtils source repository and the DdlUtils feature of propagating data of SQL binary types is therefore no longer present in DdlUtils; (2) The ddlutils-1.0 release has been removed from the Apache Release Distribution Infrastructure; (3) The DdlUtils web site has been updated to indicate that DdlUtils is now available only as source code, not as a packaged release.

CVE-2021-41616 Affected Ddlutils Versions

1 component(s)
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
org.apache.ddlutils:ddlutils
maven/org.apache.ddlutils/ddlutils
Maven
≤ 1.0

References

NVD — CVE-2021-41616 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41616
Ddlutils Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/apache/ddlutils
lists.apache.org/thread.html/r3d7a83... WEB
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r3d7a8303a820144f5e2d1fd0b067e18d419421b58346b53b58d3fa72%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2021-41616?
CVE-2021-41616 is a security vulnerability in Ddlutils involving ddlutils under CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data.
Which Ddlutils versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches across affected packages: org.apache.ddlutils:ddlutils.
What version fixes CVE-2021-41616?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is ddlutils affected?
Yes, org.apache.ddlutils:ddlutils is affected in releases prior to Latest secure release. Upgrade your dependency to Latest secure release or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-41616?
CVE-2021-41616 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2021-41616?
CVE-2021-41616 is classified under CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data (The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently ensuring that the resulting data will be valid.).
How can I check Maven dependencies for CVE-2021-41616?
Run the dependency tree command: 'mvn dependency:tree -Dincludes=org.apache.ddlutils'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-9378-f4v7-jgm4",
  "modified" : "2021-10-08T21:29:34Z",
  "published" : "2021-10-04T20:12:30Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2021-41616" ],
  "summary" : "Deserialization of Untrusted Data in org.apache.ddlutils:ddlutils",
  "details" : "Apache DB DdlUtils 1.0 included a BinaryObjectsHelper that was intended for use when migrating database data with a SQL data type of BINARY, VARBINARY, LONGVARBINARY, or BLOB between databases using the ddlutils features. The BinaryObjectsHelper class was insecure and used ObjectInputStream.readObject without validating that the input data was safe to deserialize. Please note that DdlUtils is no longer being actively developed. To address the insecurity of the BinaryObjectHelper class, the following changes to DdlUtils have been made: (1) BinaryObjectsHelper.java has been deleted from the DdlUtils source repository and the DdlUtils feature of propagating data of SQL binary types is therefore no longer present in DdlUtils; (2) The ddlutils-1.0 release has been removed from the Apache Release Distribution Infrastructure; (3) The DdlUtils web site has been updated to indicate that DdlUtils is now available only as source code, not as a packaged release.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Maven",
      "name" : "org.apache.ddlutils:ddlutils"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "last_affected" : "1.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41616"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/apache/ddlutils"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r3d7a8303a820144f5e2d1fd0b067e18d419421b58346b53b58d3fa72%40%3Cannounce.apache.org%3E"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-502" ],
    "severity" : "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2021-10-01T18:36:23Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2021-09-30T08:15:00Z"
  }
}