CVE-2021-44228 (log4j) Apache vulnerability - How does this affect security in ServiceNow?

[Kelly Logan]

Apache Log4j2 <=2.14.1 JNDI features used in configuration, log messages, and parameters do not protect against attacker controlled LDAP and other JNDI related endpoints. An attacker who can control log messages or log message parameters can execute arbitrary code loaded from LDAP servers when message lookup substitution is enabled. From log4j 2.15.0, this behavior has been disabled by default. In previous releases (>2.10) this behavior can be mitigated by setting system property "log4j2.formatMsgNoLookups" to “true” or by removing the JndiLookup class from the classpath (example: zip -q -d log4j-core-*.jar org/apache/logging/log4j/core/lookup/JndiLookup.class). Java 8u121 (see https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/8u121-relnotes.html) protects against remote code execution by defaulting "com.sun.jndi.rmi.object.trustURLCodebase" and "com.sun.jndi.cosnaming.object.trustURLCodebase" to "false".

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-44228

Exploit code has been released for a serious code-execution vulnerability in Log4j, an open-source logging utility that's used in countless apps, including those used by large enterprise organizations, several websites reported on last Thursday.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/12/minecraft-and-other-apps-face-serious-threat-from-new-code-execution-bug/

[Frank Tate]

I realize you're looking for an answer from ServiceNow support, but since I posted the command, I'll provide my answer:

This will not break any functionality of the MID Server. This is the implementation of the statement "remove JndiLookup.class from the classpath" in several of the mitigation statements on the internet. This class is only called from within other Log4j classes, and each call is surrounded by a try/catch block that will catch the NoClasFound exception, allowing the application (MID Server) to keep running as if nothing happened.

Frank

[J_rgen Blakstad]

Thanks for great response Frank,

ServiceNow also updated regarding CVE-2021-45046:

https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1000959

[Dave Mau]

Here are the two KB, one mentioned above: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1000959 and this one on the MID server that shows where log4j has been removed: https://support.servicenow.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB1000959

Please let me know if you have any other questions.