How severe is GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q?

GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q?

GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q affects the following packages: org.apache.uima:uimaj (Maven). Ecosystems affected: Maven.

How do I fix GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q?

Update org.apache.uima:uimaj to 3.5.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q in my Maven dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.uima:uimaj. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

How does O3 Security protect against GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q?

GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 1.5%, placing it in the 70th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q?

GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q is classified as Improper Input Validation (CWE-20), Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q was published on November 8, 2023 and was last updated on February 13, 2025. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

☕ Maven

GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q

HIGH

Apache UIMA Java SDK Deserialization of Untrusted Data, Improper Input Validation vulnerability

Also known asCVE-2023-39913

Published

Nov 8, 2023

Updated

Feb 13, 2025

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

1.5%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk70th percentile+1.06%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

☕org.apache.uima:uimaj

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Deserialization of Untrusted Data, Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Apache UIMA Java SDK. This issue affects Apache UIMA Java SDK before 3.5.0.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.5.0, which fixes the issue.

There are several locations in the code where serialized Java objects are deserialized without verifying the data. This affects in particular:

the deserialization of a Java-serialized CAS, but also other binary CAS formats that include TSI information using the CasIOUtils class;
the CAS Editor Eclipse plugin which uses the the CasIOUtils class to load data;
the deserialization of a Java-serialized CAS of the Vinci Analysis Engine service which can receive using Java-serialized CAS objects over network connections;
the CasAnnotationViewerApplet and the CasTreeViewerApplet;
the checkpointing feature of the CPE module.

Note that the UIMA framework by default does not start any remotely accessible services (i.e. Vinci) that would be vulnerable to this issue. A user or developer would need to make an active choice to start such a service. However, users or developers may use the CasIOUtils in their own applications and services to parse serialized CAS data. They are affected by this issue unless they ensure that the data passed to CasIOUtils is not a serialized Java object.

When using Vinci or using CasIOUtils in own services/applications, the unrestricted deserialization of Java-serialized CAS files may allow arbitrary (remote) code execution.

As a remedy, it is possible to set up a global or context-specific ObjectInputFilter (cf. https://openjdk.org/jeps/290 and https://openjdk.org/jeps/415 ) if running UIMA on a Java version that supports it.

Note that Java 1.8 does not support the ObjectInputFilter, so there is no remedy when running on this out-of-support platform. An upgrade to a recent Java version is strongly recommended if you need to secure an UIMA version that is affected by this issue.

To mitigate the issue on a Java 9+ platform, you can configure a filter pattern through the "jdk.serialFilter" system property using a semicolon as a separator:

To allow deserializing Java-serialized binary CASes, add the classes:

org.apache.uima.cas.impl.CASCompleteSerializer
org.apache.uima.cas.impl.CASMgrSerializer
org.apache.uima.cas.impl.CASSerializer
java.lang.String

To allow deserializing CPE Checkpoint data, add the following classes (and any custom classes your application uses to store its checkpoints):

org.apache.uima.collection.impl.cpm.CheckpointData
org.apache.uima.util.ProcessTrace
org.apache.uima.util.impl.ProcessTrace_impl
org.apache.uima.collection.base_cpm.SynchPoint

Make sure to use "!*" as the final component to the filter pattern to disallow deserialization of any classes not listed in the pattern.

Apache UIMA 3.5.0 uses tightly scoped ObjectInputFilters when reading Java-serialized data depending on the type of data being expected. Configuring a global filter is not necessary with this version.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
☕Maven	`org.apache.uima:uimaj`	all versions	3.5.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.uima:uimaj. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update org.apache.uima:uimaj to 3.5.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Deserialization of Untrusted Data, Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Apache UIMA Java SDK. This issue affects Apache UIMA Java SDK before 3.5.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.5.0, which fixes the issue. There are several locations in the code where serialized Java objects are deserialized without verifying the data. This affects in particular: * the deserialization of a Java-serialized CAS, but also other binary CAS formats that include TSI information using the CasIOUtils class; * the CAS Editor Eclipse plugin which uses the the CasIOUtils class to load data;

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-5r8j-qmcm-7g7q across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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