The Apache Software Foundation on Friday addressed a high severity vulnerability in Apache OFBiz that could have allowed an unauthenticated adversary to remotely seize control of the open-source enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Tracked as CVE-2021-26295, the flaw affects all versions of the software prior to 17.12.06 and employs an "unsafe deserialization" as an attack vector to permit unauthorized remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on a server directly.

OFBiz is a Java-based web framework for automating enterprise processes and offers a wide range of functionality, including accounting, customer relationship management, manufacturing operations management, order management, supply chain fulfillment, and warehouse management system, among others.

Specifically, by exploiting this flaw, a malicious party can tamper with serialized data to insert arbitrary code that, when deserialized, can potentially result in remote code execution.

"An unauthenticated attacker can use this vulnerability to successfully take over Apache OFBiz," OFBiz developer Jacques Le Roux noted.

Unsafe deserialization has been a source of data integrity and other security issues, with the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) noting that "data which is untrusted cannot be trusted to be well formed, [and that] malformed data or unexpected data could be used to abuse application logic, deny service, or execute arbitrary code, when deserialized."

r00t4dm at Cloud-Penetrating Arrow Lab, MagicZero from SGLAB of Legendsec at Qi'anxin Group, and Longofo at Knownsec 404 Team have been credited with reporting the vulnerability.

It's recommended to upgrade Apache OFBiz to the latest version (17.12.06) to mitigate the risk associated with the flaw.