IRONSMITHINTEL
CRITICALCVSS9.8
|
Actively Exploited
|CISA KEV|CVE-2019-10068|Auth: none — unauthenticated|Reboot: required|Manual only

Kentico Xperience Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

Kentico contains a failure to validate security headers. This deserialization can led to unauthenticated remote code execution.

Published Mar 26, 2019 · Updated May 16, 2026
Why patchRisk explained in plain English
Worst-case scenarioIf unpatched

A remote attacker, without authentication, can achieve full data confidentiality loss, arbitrary modification of data, complete denial of service or system unavailability. Federal agencies are required to remediate by 2022-04-15 under CISA BOD 22-01.

How the attack worksNo clicks needed

This is a Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Kentico Xperience. An issue was discovered in Kentico 12.0.x before 12.0.15, 11.0.x before 11.0.48, 10.0.x before 10.0.52, and 9.x versions. Due to a failure to validate security headers, it was possible for a specially crafted request to the staging service to bypass the initial authentication and proceed to deserialize user-controlled .NET object input. This deserialization then led to unauthenticated remote code execution on the server where the Kentico instance was hosted. Exploitation requires remote network access, low attack complexity, no authentication required, and no user interaction required.

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Phishing link

🖼

Malicious file

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Server compromised

Am I affected?Quick check

Probably yes if any of these apply:

IT Security
Running xperience: 9.0.0 ≤ v ≤ 9.0.51, 10.0.0 ≤ v < 10.0.52, 11.0.0 ≤ v < 11.0.48, 12.0.0 ≤ v < 12.0.15
Real-world incidentsWhat we've seen

Active exploitation documented in the wild. Threat-research write-up: http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157588/Kentico-CMS-12.0.14-Remote-Command-Execution.html

How to patch

Manual remediation steps

Apply the Vendor Patch

This vulnerability is in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — apply the vendor's security update as soon as possible.

CISA required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

References

    1
    Vendor advisory: https://devnet.kentico.com/download/hotfixes#securityBugs-v12
    1
    NVD entry: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-10068
    1
    CISA KEV: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-10068
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