# CVE-2023-3171: Eap-7: heap exhaustion via deserialization

> Attackers can cause heap exhaustion and denial of service in JBoss EAP by submitting malicious deserialization requests.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Dec 2023
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-gpgq-5q34-mh72

## What is CVE-2023-3171?

CVE-2023-3171 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform, published on 27 Dec 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in EAP-7 during deserialization of certain classes, which permits instantiation of HashMap and HashTable with no checks on resources consumed. This issue could allow an attacker to submit malicious requests using these classes, which could eventually exhaust the heap and result in a Denial of Service.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling), CWE-789 (Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-3171?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-3171?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-3171 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-3171 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform

- [CVE-2017-12149](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12149/): Red Hat JBoss Application Server Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2010-1428](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-1428/): Red Hat JBoss Information Disclosure (medium 5.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2010-0738](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-0738/): Red Hat JBoss Authentication Bypass (low 3.7, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-3690](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-3690/): Deserialization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-7504](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7504/): Deserialization in JBoss (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-3171 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-3171 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform, published on 27 Dec 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-3171 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-3171/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-3171/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-3171
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-3171
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-3171

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-3171/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.