Safer deserialization in Spring Security OAuth2

The Java standard library provides the ObjectInputStream class which offers a convenient way for deserializing Java objects. Unfortunately, this way is not safe by default. Using this class may open the doors for Java deserialization attacks which in the worse case may result in arbitrary code execution.

I recently discovered that Spring Security OAuth2 library may be vulnerable to such an attack. Fortunately, there is one strong pre-requisite for a successful attack which may be difficult to meet for an adversary. Nevertheless, I thought it might be better to make the library a bit safer, and the project maintainers kindly accepted the contribution. Here are the details.

Safer deserialization in Spring Security OAuth 2.4.0
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CVE-2019-12415: XML processing vulnerability in Apache POI

Apache POI is a popular Java library for working with Microsoft documents. For example, it allows you reading and writing Microsoft Excel files using Java. When I was recently looking into the library, I noticed a little vulnerability which then became CVE-2019-12415. The issue has been fixed in POI 4.1.1. Below are the details.

CVE-2019-12415: XML processing vulnerability in Apache POI
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Safer deserialization with new Jackson 2.10

New Jackson 2.10 was released on Sep 26th, 2019. Everyone who uses the library and also scans their applications for known vulnerabilities knows about the problem with endless CVEs that have been reporting against Jackson. Let’s try to understand what makes an application vulnerable and how the new version of Jackson can help to prevent deserialization vulnerabilities.

Safer deserialization with new Jackson 2.10
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Life in a bubble

Moving to a new country doesn’t sound like the hardest thing to do. There are harder tasks such as researching dark matter and energy or maybe crochet. However, moving abroad doesn’t sound like the easiest exercise either. When you move to a new place, you usually need to learn many new and not always easy things. Those may be laws, traditions, cultural differences, and of course, the language in which people speak in the country. Otherwise, you may end up living in a bubble.

Maple leaf in Germany
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TLS enhancements in Java 13

Java 13 was released on Sep 13th, 2019. Although the new Java doesn’t contain major updates in security libraries, nevertheless it has several notable updates in the TLS implementation. Let’s take a closer look at how Java 13 helps to make your TLS connections faster and more secure.

TLS enhancements in Java 13
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What’s new in Java 13

Java 13 is going to be released on Sep 17th, 2019. Besides ~2300 bug fixes and small enhancements, the new version of Java contains 5 major enhancements which are also called JEPs (Java Enhancement Proposals). Let’s take a closer look at these major updates: text blocks, switch expressions, re-implemented the legacy Socket API, updates to ZGC and dynamic CDS archives.

What is new in Java 13
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Weather station based on ESP32 and MicroPython

In one of the previous posts I briefly described sending data to Google Sheets from a ESP32 board using MicroPython. As I mentioned earlier, the code is available on GitHub. Here are the main features:

  1. Measuring temperature and humidity with DHT22 sensor.
  2. Sending data to a Google Sheet.
  3. Authentication via Google OAuth 2.0 service to get access to the sheet.
  4. Configuring the device via web browser.

The Google Sheet doesn’t need to be publicly available on the Internet. The device doesn’t require any middleman such as PushingBox or IFTTT.

In this post, let’s focus a bit on technical details.

ESP32 board and DHT22 sensor
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MicroPython on ESP32: sending data to Google Sheets

On a wonderful weekend in summer time, instead of going out to a beach or somewhere else, I was staying at home and wondering if it’s possible to send data from an ESP board to a Google sheet using my favorite MicroPython. Let’s say it can send temperature and humidity measured by a DHT22 sensor. That’s how the project started.

(this post contains a brief description of the project, more technical details can be found in the next post)

ESP32 development board and DHT22 sensor: sending data to a Google sheet.
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Transistor delay circuit

The transistor delay circuit may be helpful to learn some electronics basics. The circuit is pretty simple. It only contains a transistor, a capacitor, several resistors, a switch and an LED. The circuit uses an RC filter to turn an LED on with a little delay. Let’s see how we can choose elements for the circuit, and how the delay depends on parameters of the elements.

Transistor delay circuit on a breadboard
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Small hydroponic system at home

Increasing living space unavoidably results in filling up the new available space. In the end of last year I moved to a bigger apartment. Since I still have the same furniture, the unused space and volume keep bothering me. In the winter I built a shelving and now I store some useful stuff on it. In spring I got an idea to make a small garden at home. On weekend I built several wooden boxes, and put cherry tomatoes, onions and dill into it. But then I thought it’s not enough. I bought a couple of plastic containers and put more tomatoes. But I thought even that was not enough, and I got an idea to make a hydroponic system.

hydroponic system at home
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