Adobe Security Bulletin
Security updates available for ColdFusion | APSB18-33
Bulletin ID Date Published Priority
APSB18-33 September 11, 2018 1

Summary

Adobe has released security updates for ColdFusion versions 2018, 2016 and 11. These updates resolve critical vulnerabilities that could lead to arbitrary code execution.  

UPDATE: As of September 28, Adobe is aware of a report that CVE-2018-15961 is being actively exploited in the wild. The updates for ColdFusion 2018 and ColdFusion 2016 announced in this bulletin have been elevated to Priority 1. Adobe recommends customers update to the latest version as soon as possible.

Affected Versions

Product Affected Versions Platform
ColdFusion (2018 release) July 12 release (2018.0.0.310739) All
ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 6 and earlier versions All
ColdFusion 11 Update 14 and earlier versions All

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 1 All 1 Tech note
ColdFusion 2016  Update 7 All 1 Tech note
ColdFusion 11 Update 15 All
2 Tech note

Note:

The security updates referenced in the above Tech Notes require JDK 8u121 or higher (for ColdFusion 2016) and JDK 7u131 or JDK 8u121 (for ColdFusion 11). Adobe recommends updating your ColdFusion JDK/JRE to the latest version. Applying the ColdFusion update without a corresponding JDK update will NOT secure the server. See the relevant Tech Notes for more details.

Adobe also 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
Deserialization of untrusted data Arbitrary code execution Critical

CVE-2018-15965 

CVE-2018-15957 

CVE-2018-15958

CVE-2018-15959

Use of a component with a known vulnerability Information Disclosure Moderate CVE-2018-15964
Security bypass Arbitrary folder creation Important CVE-2018-15963
Directory listing Information Disclosure Important CVE-2018-15962
Unrestricted file upload  Arbitrary code execution Critical CVE-2018-15961
Use of a component with a known vulnerability Arbitrary file overwrite Critical CVE-2018-15960

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:

  • Matthias Kaiser of Code White GmbH (CVE-2018-15957, )
  • Gsrc from Venustech-Adlab (CVE-2018-15958, CVE-2018-15959)
  • Pete Freitag of Foundeo (CVE-2018-15960, CVE-2018-15961, CVE-2018-15962, CVE-2018-15963, CVE-2018-15964)
  • Nick Bloor of Cognitous Ltd (CVE-2018-15965)

ColdFusion JDK Requirement

COLDFUSION 2018 HF1

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

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

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

Revisions

September 28, 2018: Updates for ColdFusion 2018 and ColdFusion 2016 have been elevated to Priority 1 due to a report that CVE-2018-15961 is now being actively exploited.

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