ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 9

ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 9 (release date, 14 April, 2020) addresses vulnerabilities that are mentioned in the security bulletin, APSB20-18.

SameSite attribute

The SameSite attribute allows you to declare whether your cookies must be restricted to first-party.

In Google Chrome, Update 80 defaults all cookies to first-party, if the cookies do not have the SameSite attribute defined. Previously, if SameSite wasn’t set, it defaulted to none, which enabled third-party sharing by default.

The cfcookie tag has a new attribute, SameSite.

The SameSite attribute supports these values:

• Strict
• Lax
• None

Usage

1. CFCookie

<cfcookie name="name" value="value" sameSite="Strict | Lax | None">

2. Auth cookie / Session Cookie (CFID, CFTOKEN)
<cfset cookstruct = {samesite: "Lax"}
<cfapplication authCookie=cookStruct sessionCookie=cookstruct >

Example- cfapplication tag

<cfset cookies = {httponly='true', timeout=createTimeSpan(1, 0, 0, 0), sameSite='Strict'}>

<cfset authcookies = {samesite='Lax'}>

<cfapplication name="MyApp" sessionmanagement="Yes" authCookie=authcookies sessioncookie=cookies>

Example- cfm

<cfcookie
    name = "newCookieName"
    value = "newCookieValue"
    expires = "20"
    samesite="Strict"
/>

Usage- Application.cfc

In this update, the following flags have been added.

this.sessioncookie.samesite = "Strict | Lax | None"

this.authcookie.samesite= "Strict | Lax | None"

Example

component {

                this.name = "MyApp";

                this.sessioncookie.samesite = "Strict";

                this.authcookie.samesite = "Lax";

                this.sessionmanagement = true;

}

Example- Test.cfm

<cflogin>

    <cfloginuser name="john" password="pwd" roles="" />

</cflogin>

Usage- cfapplication tag

<cfset cookiest = {httponly='true', timeout=createTimeSpan(1, 0, 0, 0), samesite='Strict | Lax | None'}>

<cfset authcookiest = {samesite='Strict | Lax | None'}>

<cfapplication name="newApp" sessionmanagement="Yes" authCookie=#authcookiest# sessioncookie=#cookiest# >

Note: If the SameSite attribute is missing in cfapplication tag or Application.cfc, rthe espective session/auth cookies will take the server level SameSite attribute, which can be configured in ColdFusion administrator under the Memory Variables section.

In Update 9 of the 2018 release of ColdFusion, the sameSite attribute may or may not work out of the box as expected for various application servers. You must refer to your application server's documentation for more details.

There are, however, workarounds, but you must see the official docs of the application server.

JEE setup workaround

EAP/Wildfly

There are a couple of workarounds:

1. Write a custom filter in undertow (applicable to EAP 7.2 and above).
2. Set the SameSite flag by mod_header's Header directive of Apache HTTPD server in front of JBoss EAP.

For more information, see Configuring SameSite flag on JSESSIONID cookies for EAP 7.

Tomcat

In context.xml,  you can set the SameSite attribute.

<Context>

   <CookieProcessor sameSiteCookies="strict" />

</Context>

For more information, see the docs.

WebSphere

WebSphere recommends using Apache HTTP Server to replace existing cookies. For more information, see the WebSphere docs.

WebSphere has released a fix for this issue. Download the fix for your version.

Prerequisites

1. On 64-bit computers, use 64-bit JRE for 64-bit ColdFusion.
2. If the ColdFusion server is behind a proxy, specify the proxy settings for the server to get the update notification and download the updates. Specify proxy settings using the system properties below in the jvm.config for a stand-alone installation, or corresponding script file for JEE installation.
   • http.proxyHost
   • http.proxyPort
   • http.proxyUser
   • http.proxyPassword
3. For ColdFusion running on JEE application servers, stop all application server instances before installing the update.

Installation

For instructions on how to install this update, see  Server Update section. For any questions related to updates, see this FAQ. 

• The update can be installed from the Administrator of a ColdFusion instance or through the command-line option.
• Windows users can launch the ColdFusion Administrator using Start > All Programs > Adobe > Coldfusion 2018 > Administrator.
• Microsoft Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server R2 2012, and Windows Server 2016 users must use the “Run as Administrator” option to launch  wsconfig  tool at {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/runtime/bin.
• If you get the following error when installing the update using the Download and Install option, ensure that the folder {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/hf_updates has write permission: "An error occurred when performing a file operation write on file {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/hf-updates/hotfix_009.properties".
• The connector configuration files are backed up at {cf_install_home}/config/ wsconfig /backup. Add back any custom changes made to the workers.properties file after reconfiguring the connector.

Installing the update manually

1. Click the link to download the JAR.
2. Execute the following command on the downloaded JAR. You must have privileges to start or stop ColdFusion service and full access to the ColdFusion root directory.

    Windows: <cf_root>/jre/bin/java.exe -jar <jar-file-dir>/hotfix-009-318650.jar

    Linux-based platforms: <cf_root>/jre/bin/java -jar <jar-file-dir>/hotfix-009-318650.jar

Ensure that the JRE bundled with ColdFusion is used for executing the downloaded JAR. For standalone ColdFusion, this must be at, <cf_root>/jre/bin.

Install the update from a user account that has permissions to restart ColdFusion services and other configured webservers .

For further details on how to manually update the application, see the help article.

Post installation

Post installation, we recommend rebuilding or reconfiguring your connector.

Note: This holds true only if you have applied Update 9 without applying Update 8.

If you see Error 503 or Error 403 when firing up your websites, see the troubleshooting steps.

Applying Server Auto-Lockdown

After you've installed Update 9 (with a pre-configured connector), and have locked down the server using the Auto-Lockdown installer, you may encounter Error 403 forbidden, when accessing the web pages.

To fix this issue, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Ensure that the secret in workers.properties file matches the secret in server.xml.
2. If the secret does not match, copy the secret from workers.properties file  and paste it in server.xml file.
3. Restart your ColdFusion Server for the changes to take effect.
   

Locations of files

Uninstallation

To uninstall the update, perform one of the following:

• In ColdFusion Administrator, click Uninstall in Server Update > Updates > Installed Updates.
• Run the uninstaller for the update from the command prompt. For example, java -jar {cf_install_home}/{instance_home}/hf_updates/hf-2018-00009-318650/uninstall /uninstaller.jar

If you can't uninstall the update using the above-mentioned uninstall options, the uninstaller could be corrupted. However, you can manually uninstall the update by doing the following:

1. Delete the update jar from {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/lib/updates.
2. Copy all folders from {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/hf-updates/{hf-2018-00009-318650}/backup directory to {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/

Connector configuration