Two new security advsories for Apache CXF

Two new security advisories have been published recently for Apache CXF:

• CVE-2018-8039: Apache CXF TLS hostname verification does not work correctly with com.sun.net.ssl.*:

It is possible to configure CXF to use the com.sun.net.ssl implementation via: System.setProperty("java.protocol.handler.pkgs", "com.sun.net.ssl.internal.www.protocol");

When this system property is set, CXF uses some reflection to try to make the HostnameVerifier work with the old com.sun.net.ssl.HostnameVerifier interface. However, the default HostnameVerifier implementation in CXF does not implement the method in this interface, and an exception is thrown. However, the exception is caught in the reflection code and not properly propagated.

What this means is that if you are using the com.sun.net.ssl stack with CXF, an error with TLS hostname verification will not be thrown, leaving a CXF client subject to man-in-the-middle attacks.

• CVE-2018-8038: Apache CXF Fediz is vulnerable to DTD based XML attacks:

The fix for advisory CVE-2015-5175 in Apache CXF Fediz 1.1.3 and 1.2.1 prevented DoS style attacks via DTDs. However, it did not fully disable DTDs, meaning that the Fediz plugins could potentially be subject to a DTD-based XML attack.

In addition, the Apache CXF Fediz IdP is also potentially subject to DTD-based XML attacks for some of the WS-Federation request parameters.

Please upgrade to the latest releases to pick up fixes for these advisories. The full CVEs are available on the CXF security advisories page.