[ CVE-2024-36401 · Published 1 Jul 2024 ]

OSGeo GeoServer GeoTools Eval Injection Vulnerability

Exploited · CISA KEV CVSS 9.8 EPSS 100%Fix available

[ Why it matters ]Priority signals

  • Exploited in the wild: on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list since 2024-07-15
  • EPSS: 100% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (higher than 100% of CVEs)
  • Critical severity: CVSS 9.8

[ Description ]Official 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.

CISA: OSGeo GeoServer GeoTools contains an improper neutralization of directives in dynamically evaluated code vulnerability due to unsafely evaluating property names as XPath expressions. This allows unauthenticated attackers to conduct remote code execution via specially crafted input.

[ Fixes ]Fixes and patches

CISA required action (US federal deadline 5 Aug 2024): Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.