Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in evaluating property name expressions in Geoserver
- Published
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Listed in CISA KEV
- How many real-world setups can hit the bug, from the vendor's advisory and CISA data. It does not know your setup.What do these mean? →
- Actively exploited
- Fix
- Fixed in 2.23.6, 2.24.4, 2.25.2, 2.22.6
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
GeoServer, an open source server for sharing and editing geospatial data, is affected by a vulnerability that lets unauthenticated users run arbitrary code on the server through specially crafted requests to standard OGC service parameters, affecting default installations. This means an attacker could potentially take full control of the affected server without needing any login credentials.
Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.
Read the original description
GeoServer is an open source server that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Prior to versions 2.22.6, 2.23.6, 2.24.4, and 2.25.2, multiple OGC request parameters allow Remote Code Execution (RCE) by unauthenticated users through specially crafted input against a default GeoServer installation due to unsafely evaluating property names as XPath expressions. The GeoTools library API that GeoServer calls evaluates property/attribute names for feature types in a way that unsafely passes them to the commons-jxpath library which can execute arbitrary code when evaluating XPath expressions. This XPath evaluation is intended to be used only by complex feature types (i.e., Application Schema data stores) but is incorrectly being applied to simple feature types as well which makes this vulnerability apply to ALL GeoServer instances. No public PoC is provided but this vulnerability has been confirmed to be exploitable through WFS GetFeature, WFS GetPropertyValue, WMS GetMap, WMS GetFeatureInfo, WMS GetLegendGraphic and WPS Execute requests. This vulnerability can lead to executing arbitrary code. Versions 2.22.6, 2.23.6, 2.24.4, and 2.25.2 contain a patch for the issue. A workaround exists by removing the `gt-complex-x.y.jar` file from the GeoServer where `x.y` is the GeoTools version (e.g., `gt-complex-31.1.jar` if running GeoServer 2.25.1). This will remove the vulnerable code from GeoServer but may break some GeoServer functionality or prevent GeoServer from deploying if the gt-complex module is needed.
Timeline
- CVE published
- Added to CISA KEV
CISA has evidence of exploitation in the wild
- CISA remediation deadline
Due date for US federal agencies to patch
- Record last updated
- EPSS reached 10%
FIRST estimates at least a 10% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Affected versions
- geoserver geoserver
From 2.23.0 · fixed in 2.23.6; From 2.24.0 · fixed in 2.24.4; From 2.25.0 · fixed in 2.25.2; fixed in 2.22.6
- org.geoserver.web:gs-web-appMaven
From 2.24.0 · fixed in 2.24.4
- org.geoserver:gs-wfsMaven
From 2.24.0 · fixed in 2.24.4
- org.geoserver:gs-wmsMaven
From 2.24.0 · fixed in 2.24.4
- org.geoserver.web:gs-web-appMaven
From 2.25.0 · fixed in 2.25.2
- org.geoserver:gs-wfsMaven
From 2.25.0 · fixed in 2.25.2
- org.geoserver:gs-wmsMaven
From 2.25.0 · fixed in 2.25.2
- org.geoserver.web:gs-web-appMaven
From 2.23.0 · fixed in 2.23.6
- org.geoserver:gs-wfsMaven
From 2.23.0 · fixed in 2.23.6
- org.geoserver:gs-wmsMaven
From 2.23.0 · fixed in 2.23.6
- org.geoserver.web:gs-web-appMaven
fixed in 2.22.6
- org.geoserver:gs-wfsMaven
fixed in 2.22.6
- org.geoserver:gs-wmsMaven
fixed in 2.22.6