CVE-2025-23367: JBoss EAP Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2025-23367 Overview

A critical authorization bypass vulnerability has been discovered in the WildFly Server Role Based Access Control (RBAC) provider that allows unauthorized users to perform server management operations. When authorization for management operations is secured using the RBAC provider, a user without the required privileges can suspend or resume the server. Users assigned the Monitor or Auditor roles, who should only have read access permissions, can exploit this flaw to suspend the server, causing service disruption.

The vulnerability stems from the Suspend and Resume handlers failing to perform authorization checks to validate whether the current user has the required permissions to proceed with the action.

Critical Impact

Low-privileged users with Monitor or Auditor roles can suspend or resume WildFly/JBoss EAP servers, potentially causing denial of service and business disruption in enterprise Java application environments.

Affected Products

• Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (multiple versions)
• Red Hat WildFly (multiple versions)
• Red Hat WildFly 28.0.0 Beta1

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-01-30 - CVE-2025-23367 published to NVD
• 2025-12-06 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-23367

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability represents a classic authorization bypass flaw (CWE-284: Improper Access Control) in the WildFly application server's management interface. The core issue lies in the server's suspend and resume functionality, which is part of the administrative management operations designed to gracefully handle server state transitions.

In a properly configured RBAC environment, different roles are assigned distinct permission levels. The Monitor role is intended for read-only observation of server metrics and status, while the Auditor role is designed for reviewing logs and audit trails without the ability to modify server state. However, due to missing authorization checks in the relevant handlers, these roles can invoke operations that should be restricted to higher-privileged administrative roles.

The network-accessible attack vector with low complexity makes this vulnerability particularly concerning for organizations running WildFly or JBoss EAP in environments where multiple users have varying levels of access to the management console or CLI.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-23367 is the absence of authorization validation in the Suspend and Resume operation handlers within the WildFly management subsystem. When these handlers process incoming requests, they fail to verify whether the authenticated user possesses the necessary RBAC permissions to execute state-changing operations on the server.

This represents a gap in the security implementation where the authentication layer correctly identifies the user and their assigned roles, but the authorization layer does not enforce role-based restrictions for these specific operations. The handlers essentially treat all authenticated users as having permission to suspend or resume the server.

Attack Vector

The attack can be executed by any authenticated user with Monitor or Auditor role access to the WildFly management interface. An attacker would:

1. Authenticate to the WildFly management console or CLI using credentials associated with a Monitor or Auditor role
2. Issue a suspend command through the management interface to halt request processing
3. The server enters suspended state, causing denial of service for applications
4. Optionally, the attacker can resume the server to mask the attack or time the disruption strategically

The attack requires network access to the management interface and valid low-privileged credentials, but does not require any user interaction or special conditions beyond these prerequisites. The impact is limited to availability, as the attacker cannot read or modify sensitive data through this vulnerability.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-23367

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected server suspend or resume operations in WildFly/JBoss EAP audit logs
• Server state changes performed by users with Monitor or Auditor roles
• Management interface access patterns showing suspend/resume commands from non-administrative accounts
• Application availability issues correlating with management console activity from low-privileged users

Detection Strategies

• Review WildFly audit logs for suspend and resume operations, cross-referencing the executing user's role assignments
• Implement alerting on server state change events triggered by non-administrative users
• Monitor the management interface for unusual patterns of administrative commands from read-only role accounts
• Deploy application performance monitoring to detect unexpected server suspension events

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive audit logging for all WildFly management operations
• Configure SIEM rules to alert on server lifecycle changes from unauthorized roles
• Implement real-time monitoring of the WildFly management subsystem for privilege escalation attempts
• Establish baseline patterns for legitimate administrative operations to identify anomalies

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-23367

Immediate Actions Required

• Apply the latest security patches from Red Hat for JBoss EAP and WildFly installations
• Review user role assignments and limit Monitor/Auditor role access to trusted personnel only
• Restrict network access to the WildFly management interface using firewall rules
• Implement additional network segmentation to isolate management interfaces from general user networks

Patch Information

Red Hat has released security advisories addressing this vulnerability. Organizations should apply the appropriate patches based on their deployed product versions:

• Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2025:3467
• Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2025:3989
• Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2025:3990
• Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2025:3992

Additional details are available in the Red Hat CVE Report CVE-2025-23367 and Red Hat Bug Report #2337620.

Workarounds

• Disable or restrict access to the management interface until patches can be applied
• Implement network-level access controls to limit management interface exposure to trusted administrative networks only
• Temporarily remove Monitor and Auditor role assignments from untrusted users
• Deploy a reverse proxy with additional authorization controls in front of the management interface

# Example: Restrict management interface binding in standalone.xml
# Change management interface binding from 0.0.0.0 to localhost only
# Locate: <interfaces> section in standalone.xml or domain.xml
# Update management interface to bind to 127.0.0.1 instead of any address
# Then use SSH tunneling for remote administrative access