Apache ActiveMQ: Insufficient API restrictions on Jolokia allow authenticated users to perform RCE
At a glance
Severity
Not available
EPSS
EPSS 85.81 % · percentile 100 (2026-10-28)
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
apache
NVD status
Modified
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.
