CVE-2022-41678: Apache ActiveMQ: Insufficient API restrictions on Jolokia allow authenticated users to perform RCE

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 85.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2023-11-28 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-287

Description

Once an user is authenticated on Jolokia, he can potentially trigger arbitrary code execution. In details, in ActiveMQ configurations, jetty allows org.jolokia.http.AgentServlet to handler request to /api/jolokia org.jolokia.http.HttpRequestHandler#handlePostRequest is able to create JmxRequest through JSONObject. And calls to org.jolokia.http.HttpRequestHandler#executeRequest. Into deeper calling stacks, org.jolokia.handler.ExecHandler#doHandleRequest can be invoked through refection. This could lead to RCE through via various mbeans. One example is unrestricted deserialization in jdk.management.jfr.FlightRecorderMXBeanImpl which exists on Java version above 11. 1 Call newRecording. 2 Call setConfiguration. And a webshell data hides in it. 3 Call startRecording. 4 Call copyTo method. The webshell will be written to a .jsp file. The mitigation is to restrict (by default) the actions authorized on Jolokia, or disable Jolokia. A more restrictive Jolokia configuration has been defined in default ActiveMQ distribution. We encourage users to upgrade to ActiveMQ distributions version including updated Jolokia configuration: 5.16.6, 5.17.4, 5.18.0, 6.0.0.

Affected products

Apache ActiveMQ: before 5.16.6; from 5.17.0 before 5.17.4 — fixed in 5.16.6, 5.17.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache ActiveMQ 5.16.6, 5.17.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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