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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 19 Oct 2023.
RichfacesApplication · Redhat

CVE-2018-14667

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2018-11-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.3.4 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The RichFaces Framework 3.X through 3.3.4 is vulnerable to Expression Language (EL) injection via the UserResource resource. A remote, unauthenticated attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary code using a chain of java serialized objects via org.ajax4jsf.resource.UserResource$UriData.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The RichFaces Framework versions 3.X through 3.3.4 contains an Expression Language (EL) injection vulnerability in the UserResource component (org.ajax4jsf.resource.UserResource$UriData). An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by sending a chain of Java serialized objects to achieve arbitrary code execution on the target system.

MitigationUpgrade from RichFaces 3.X to a supported version (4.X or later), or migrate to an alternative JSF component library, as RichFaces 3.X is end-of-life and no longer receives security updates.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
RichfacesApplication
Affected:>= 3.1.0, <= 3.3.4
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate RichFaces libraries in the deployment
    Search for JAR files with the naming pattern richfaces*.jar in the application's lib directory, WEB-INF/lib folder, or application classpath. Common file names include richfaces-core.jar, richfaces-ui.jar, or earlier bundled variants.
    Affected if RichFaces JAR files are found in the deployment
  2. Determine the installed RichFaces version
    Inspect the manifest file (META-INF/MANIFEST.MF) inside each located RichFaces JAR, or check the version attribute in any pom.xml or dependency management file if the application uses Maven. Look for the Specification-Version or Implementation-Version field.
    Affected if The version is greater than or equal to 3.1.0 and less than or equal to 3.3.4
  3. Verify the UserResource component is present
    Search for the class org.ajax4jsf.resource.UserResource or its inner class UserResource$UriData within the RichFaces JAR files or compiled application bytecode.
    Affected if The UserResource class exists in the deployed RichFaces libraries
  4. Check if the application exposes the vulnerable resource endpoint
    Review web.xml configuration for servlet mappings or URL patterns that serve org.ajax4jsf.resource.UserResource. Also check if the application accepts serialized Java objects through HTTP requests.
    Affected if The application is configured to handle requests to the UserResource endpoint or accepts serialized object data from unauthenticated sources

A system is affected if RichFaces version 3.1.0 through 3.3.4 is deployed and the UserResource component is accessible to unauthenticated users.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 3.3.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade from RichFaces 3.X to a supported version (4.X or later), or migrate to an alternative JSF component library, as RichFaces 3.X is end-of-life and no longer receives security updates.

Recommended fix High confidence

Migrate from RichFaces 3.x to RichFaces 4.x or 5.x (e.g., RichFaces 4.5.x or 5.x series)

  1. 1. Identify all applications and dependencies using RichFaces 3.x (versions 3.1.0 through 3.3.4) in your environment.
  2. 2. Migrate application code from RichFaces 3.x to RichFaces 4.x or 5.x, as these versions do not contain the vulnerable UserResource component.
  3. 3. Update all RichFaces component references in your application to match the new API (note: RichFaces 4.x+ has significant API changes from 3.x).
  4. 4. Recompile and rebuild all application artifacts after the migration.
  5. 5. Test all application functionality thoroughly, as UI components and AJAX behaviors may behave differently in the new version.
  6. 6. If migration to RichFaces 4.x/5.x is not feasible, consider implementing network-level filtering to block external access to the UserResource endpoint (/org.ajax4jsf.resource/UserResource).
Caveat RichFaces 4.x and later have significant API changes from 3.x - migration requires substantial code refactoring including component syntax updates, AJAX behavior changes, and potential bean scope modifications. Thorough regression testing is required.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Richfaces Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,600
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-14667 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data