Cannot find root cause of CVE-2017-1000487 for plexus-utils-3.0.10.jar

Question

Small question regarding a CVE-2017-1000487 found for plexus-utils-3.0.10.jar, but I do not have this anywhere in my project.

100% reproducible with this pom:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.6.6</version>
        <relativePath/>
    </parent>

    <name>someName</name>
    <description> some description</description>
    <url>https://pages.github.com</url>
    <organization>
        <name>myOrg</name>
    </organization>
    <scm>
        <url>https://github.com</url>
    </scm>

    <groupId>org.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>cvequestion</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>pom</packaging>

    <properties>
        <java.version>11</java.version>
        <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
        <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
    </properties>

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>2021.0.1</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-cassandra-reactive</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-actuator</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-kubernetes-fabric8</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-config-client</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-sleuth</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-sleuth-zipkin</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.projectreactor.netty</groupId>
            <artifactId>reactor-netty-http-brave</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.micrometer</groupId>
            <artifactId>micrometer-registry-prometheus</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.github.resilience4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>resilience4j-micrometer</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.github.resilience4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>resilience4j-reactor</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.github.resilience4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>resilience4j-spring-boot2</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-contract-verifier</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
            <artifactId>junit-jupiter</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.mockito</groupId>
            <artifactId>mockito-core</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.lmax</groupId>
            <artifactId>disruptor</artifactId>
            <version>3.4.4</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.statemachine</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-statemachine-core</artifactId>
            <version>3.1.0</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>net.logstash.logback</groupId>
            <artifactId>logstash-logback-encoder</artifactId>
            <version>7.1.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>de.codecentric</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-admin-starter-client</artifactId>
            <version>2.6.6</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springdoc</groupId>
            <artifactId>springdoc-openapi-webflux-ui</artifactId>
            <version>1.6.7</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.github.hakky54</groupId>
            <artifactId>sslcontext-kickstart-for-netty</artifactId>
            <version>7.4.1</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-bundle-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>5.1.4</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.10.1</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.2.0</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <testFailureIgnore>true</testFailureIgnore>
                    <reportsDirectory>target/reports/junit</reportsDirectory>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <outputDirectory>target/javadoc</outputDirectory>
                    <reportOutputDirectory>target/javadoc</reportOutputDirectory>
                    <javadocExecutable>${java.home}/bin/javadoc</javadocExecutable>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>javadoc</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <phase>site</phase>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.sonarsource.scanner.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>sonar-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.9.1.2184</version>
                <dependencies>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.codehaus.woodstox</groupId>
                        <artifactId>woodstox-core-asl</artifactId>
                        <version>4.4.1</version>
                    </dependency>
                </dependencies>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>com.github.spotbugs</groupId>
                <artifactId>spotbugs-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>4.6.0.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <outputDirectory>target/reports/findbugs</outputDirectory>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-pmd-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.16.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <targetDirectory>.out/reports/pmd</targetDirectory>
                    <outputDirectory>target/reports/pmd</outputDirectory>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.1.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <outputFile>.out/reports/checkstyle/checkstyle-result.xml</outputFile>
                    <outputDirectory>target/reports/checkstyle</outputDirectory>
                    <outputFileFormat>xml</outputFileFormat>
                </configuration>
                <dependencies>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>com.puppycrawl.tools</groupId>
                        <artifactId>checkstyle</artifactId>
                        <version>10.1</version>
                    </dependency>
                </dependencies>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.owasp</groupId>
                <artifactId>dependency-check-maven</artifactId>
                <version>7.0.4</version>
                <configuration>
                    <assemblyAnalyzerEnabled>false</assemblyAnalyzerEnabled>
                    <formats>
                        <format>html</format>
                        <format>json</format>
                    </formats>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>aggregate</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
                <artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>0.8.8</version>
                <configuration>
                    <append>true</append>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>prepare-agent</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                        <id>report</id>
                        <phase>verify</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>report</goal>
                            <goal>report-aggregate</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.pitest</groupId>
                <artifactId>pitest-maven</artifactId>
                <version>1.7.5</version>
                <configuration>
                    <withHistory>true</withHistory>
                    <threads>16</threads>
                    <outputFormats>
                        <param>XML</param>
                        <param>HTML</param>
                    </outputFormats>
                    <mutators>
                        <mutator>CONDITIONALS_BOUNDARY</mutator>
                        <mutator>INCREMENTS</mutator>
                        <mutator>INVERT_NEGS</mutator>
                        <mutator>MATH</mutator>
                        <mutator>NEGATE_CONDITIONALS</mutator>
                        <mutator>EMPTY_RETURNS</mutator>
                        <mutator>FALSE_RETURNS</mutator>
                        <mutator>TRUE_RETURNS</mutator>
                        <mutator>PRIMITIVE_RETURNS</mutator>
                        <mutator>REMOVE_INCREMENTS</mutator>
                        <mutator>EXPERIMENTAL_BIG_INTEGER</mutator>
                        <mutator>EXPERIMENTAL_MEMBER_VARIABLE</mutator>
                        <mutator>EXPERIMENTAL_SWITCH</mutator>
                    </mutators>
                </configuration>
                <dependencies>
                    <dependency>
                        <groupId>org.pitest</groupId>
                        <artifactId>pitest-junit5-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>0.15</version>
                    </dependency>
                </dependencies>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.11.0</version>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.2.2</version>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

    <reporting>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-jxr-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.2.0</version>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </reporting>

</project>

When I run mvn clean install dependency:tree -X, everything works fine.

I then run some static analysis tools, such as Black Duck, SonarQube, OWASP, etc... on the same project, and I am always flagged with CVE-2017-1000487 for plexus-utils-3.0.10.jar

The thing is, I cannot find this plexus-utils-3.0.10.jar anywhere in my dependencies.

Question: Did I miss anything? Where, or which jar is pulling this plexus-utils-3.0.10.jar please?

How do I fix this please?

Thank you

Answer 1

The first thing is those jar like plexus-tuils-3.0.10.jar is usually a dependency of a Maven plugin...that's the reason why you don't see them in the dependencies.

Unfortunately I can not reproduce your report. I have copied the whole pom file ... and ran:

mvn -Dmaven.repo.local=$(pwd)/.repository clean install 

the only result I get is the following:

[INFO] End database defrag (1654 ms)
[INFO] Check for updates complete (167963 ms)
[INFO] 

Dependency-Check is an open source tool performing a best effort analysis of 3rd party dependencies; false positives and false negatives may exist in the analysis performed by the tool. Use of the tool and the reporting provided constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition, and there are NO warranties, implied or otherwise, with regard to the analysis or its use. Any use of the tool and the reporting provided is at the user’s risk. In no event shall the copyright holder or OWASP be held liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the use of this tool, the analysis performed, or the resulting report.

   About ODC: https://jeremylong.github.io/DependencyCheck/general/internals.html
   False Positives: https://jeremylong.github.io/DependencyCheck/general/suppression.html

 Sponsor: https://github.com/sponsors/jeremylong


[INFO] Analysis Started
[INFO] Finished Archive Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished File Name Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished Jar Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished Dependency Merging Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished Version Filter Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished Hint Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Created CPE Index (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished CPE Analyzer (1 seconds)
[INFO] Finished False Positive Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished NVD CVE Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished RetireJS Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished Sonatype OSS Index Analyzer (1 seconds)
[INFO] Finished Vulnerability Suppression Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Finished Dependency Bundling Analyzer (0 seconds)
[INFO] Analysis Complete (6 seconds)
[INFO] Writing report to: /Users/khm/ws-git-bugs-maven/so-xxx/target/dependency-check-report.json
[INFO] Writing report to: /Users/khm/ws-git-bugs-maven/so-xxx/target/dependency-check-report.html
[WARNING] 

One or more dependencies were identified with known vulnerabilities in someName:

native-protocol-1.5.0.jar (pkg:maven/com.datastax.oss/[email protected], cpe:2.3:a:apache:cassandra:1.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) : CVE-2020-13946
spring-statemachine-core-3.1.0.jar (pkg:maven/org.springframework.statemachine/[email protected], cpe:2.3:a:vmware:spring_framework:3.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) : CVE-2013-4152, CVE-2013-7315, CVE-2014-0054, CVE-2014-0225, CVE-2016-1000027


See the dependency-check report for more details.

If I check my local repository I can only find the following plexus-utils...but nowhere the reported one...

./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1/plexus-utils-1.1.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1/plexus-utils-1.1.jar
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1/plexus-utils-1.1.jar.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.1/plexus-utils-1.1.pom
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.22/plexus-utils-3.0.22.jar
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.22/plexus-utils-3.0.22.pom
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.22/plexus-utils-3.0.22.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.22/plexus-utils-3.0.22.jar.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.15/plexus-utils-3.0.15.jar.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.15/plexus-utils-3.0.15.pom
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.15/plexus-utils-3.0.15.jar
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.0.15/plexus-utils-3.0.15.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.4.6/plexus-utils-1.4.6.pom
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.4.6/plexus-utils-1.4.6.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.4.1/plexus-utils-3.4.1.pom
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.4.1/plexus-utils-3.4.1.jar
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.4.1/plexus-utils-3.4.1.jar.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/3.4.1/plexus-utils-3.4.1.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.5.6/plexus-utils-1.5.6.pom
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.5.6/plexus-utils-1.5.6.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.5.15/plexus-utils-1.5.15.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.5.15/plexus-utils-1.5.15.pom
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.0.4/plexus-utils-1.0.4.pom.sha1
./.repository/org/codehaus/plexus/plexus-utils/1.0.4/plexus-utils-1.0.4.pom