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frohoff
ysoserial
Java2018–2025
frohoff / ysoserial

ysoserial

A proof-of-concept tool for generating payloads that exploit unsafe Java object deserialization.

8Distinct people
8Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
9.1KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

A proof-of-concept tool for generating payloads that exploit unsafe Java object deserialization.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year8 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2018-05-28 08:43:15 UTC to 2025-10-01 17:00:27 UTC.

0122018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20212022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2025

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202

What Hacker News says

8 sources
As far as I can tell, the exploit works like this: `metadataupload` takes a .zip file as POST input. This endpoint can be trivially reached on any SAP instance without authentication. The .zip file can contain a .properties file, which is deserialized into a java.util.Properties instance. Since they're using Java deserialization, it is possible to deserialize arbitrary objects. The actual exploit uses a payload generated by ysoserial (https://github.com/frohoff/ysoserial) to either execute a command directly or drop a file on the filesystem. The basic idea behind a deserialization attack is to construct an object graph such that, when deserialized, functions that run normally as part of the deserialization process end up calling arbitrary code. Deserialization attacks are well-known in the Java world, and are very common thanks to the fac
Read the rest
t that the serializer is both easy to use and baked into the language. With a large enough codebase (or the right dependencies) you're practically guaranteed to have enough serializable types to string together an RCE. As an example, one of the classes used in this exploit is org.apache.xalan.xsltc.trax.TemplatesImpl (https://xalan.apache.org/xalan-j/apidocs/org/apache/xalan/xs...). This class contains a serializable array of Java .class bytecodes which will be dynamically loaded if the `newTransformer` method is called; note that merely loading a Java `.class` will be enough to run arbitrary code via static constructors. Other serializable classes are used to get the `newTransformer` method to be called on the object during deserialization. The OP post is full of nonsensical and outright incorrect fluff. This is a straightforward deserialization-to-RCE bug; the RCE is what's being used to upload arbitrary files.
In Technical Analysis of SAP Exploit Script Used in JLR, Harrods Hacks
Alternatives or not, you open that 'risky' door at the moment you have to read the payload to know what type of data it is. Once it's read, it's already too late. Java serialization has not many ways around it, you have to trust the sources. XML, JSON, ... used naively with reflection (e.g. new XStream().fromXML(...)) exposes the exact same issues. Custom homemade parsers are also very likely somehow vulnerable. The deserialization attack is a way to make the deserializer exploits vulnerable classes that exist in your classpath. It's not generating or executing malicious code by itself. The standard classes should be ok, or at least fixed quickly. Things like commons-collection will likely never be fixed. It might be considered as a feature from some point of view. Check this out: https://github.com/frohoff/ysoserial My 2 cents: - Secure
Read the rest
your sources - Know you format, do not rely on reflection to parse text or binary data - Watch out with your classpath, but you can never know what new vulnerability will pop next weeks
In Oracle plans to dump risky Java serialization

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