CVE-2024-36401

OSGeo GeoServer: GeoTools Eval Injection

As of , CVE-2024-36401 in OSGeo GeoServer is on CISA's list of exploited vulnerabilities: CISA listed it on . Our patch-first group: Patch this week.

Exploited
Yes: CISA listed it on 15 July 2024
US federal deadline
5 August 202421 days after CISA listed it. US federal civilian agencies must fix it by then.
Used in ransomware campaigns
Not known to CISA
EPSS score
0.99Higher than 99% of the CVEs EPSS scores. EPSS estimates the chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
EPSS when listed
0.78 on 15 July 2024EPSS on the day CISA listed it.
Public exploit
1 Metasploit module
Fix
Vendor advice: github.comLinks below, from CISA's entry.

What CISA says to do

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

CISA's required action

  • github.comThis vulnerability affects an open-source component, third-party library, or a protocol used by different products. For more information…

What the flaw is

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.

CISA's 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).

The CVE record's description, from GitHub_M, shortened; full text on cve.org

CVE published
1 July 2024
Assigned by
GitHub_M
CVSS
9.8 Critical (CVSS 3.1, from the CNA)
CWE-95
Improper Neutralization of Directives in Dynamically Evaluated Code ('Eval Injection')
CISA SSVC, exploitation
active
CISA SSVC, automatable
yes
CISA SSVC, technical impact
total

Timeline

  1. The CVE record was published.
  2. CISA added it to its list of exploited vulnerabilities.
  3. The US federal deadline to fix it.

Public exploits

Facts from Metasploit's module list and Exploit-DB's index; we never copy exploit code.

  • Metasploit: Geoserver unauthenticated Remote Code Executionexploit module, rank excellent

GeoServer: other exploited entries

VulnerabilityProductOur groupListedDeadlineEPSS
CVE-2025-58360Improper Restriction of XML External Entity ReferenceOSGeo GeoServerPatch this weekMetasploit module; EPSS 0.610.61

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