CVE-2025-24016: Wazuh Server Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

Summary An unsafe deserialization vulnerability allows for remote code execution on Wazuh servers. The vulnerability can be triggered by anybody with API access (compromised dashboard or Wazuh servers in the cluster) or, in certain configurations, even by a compromised agent.

Details DistributedAPI parameters are a serialized as JSON and deserialized using aswazuhobject (in framework/wazuh/core/cluster/common.py). If an attacker manages to inject an unsanitized dictionary in DAPI request/response, they can forge an unhandled exception (unhandledexc) to evaluate arbitrary python code.

Using the server API, it quite easy to trigger. For example, using the runas endpoint (implemented by runaslogin in api/api/controllers/securitycontroller.py): the authcontext argument is completely controlled by the attacker, and is forwarded to the master server to handle. By sending a malicious runas request to a worker server, it is possible to execute code on the master server.

It is also possible to exploit the bug as a compromised agent, in certain configurations. A compromised agent can respond to a getconfig request with a malicious JSON object (containing a serialized unhandled exception). If the getconfig request was caused because of a server API request to /agents/{agentid}/config/{component}/{configuration} (api.controllers.agentcontroller.getagentconfig), and the agent is managed by a server other than the one that received the server API request, the unsafe deserialization will occur on the server that received the original server API request.

user server A server B agent | | | | | -get-config-> | | | | | --get-config-dapi-> | | | | | --getconf-> | | | | <-payload-- | | X <-----payload------ | | | | | |

It is likely that there are more ways to reach the unsafe deserialization function (aswazuhobject), some of them might even be accessible from different contexts (without credentials, or initiated by a compromised agent). I suggest fixing the root cause instead of attempting to sanitize inputs that reach it. Note that there are multiple other ways to execute arbitrary code in aswazuhobject, easier by using a callable, or potentially abusing callable gadgets in exception, wresults or Wazuh.

PoC To trigger using the server API (assuming default credentials): bash curl -X POST -k -u "wazuh-wui:MyS3cr37P450r.-" -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"unhandledexc":{"class": "exit", "args": []}}' https://<worker-server>:55000/security/user/authenticate/runas this will shut down the master server.

Impact This is a remote code execution on Wazuh server, affecting the latest version (v4.9.0 at this time)