Threat Intelligence / CVE / CVE-2024-36401

CVE-2024-36401 — geoserver

CISA KEV
CVSS v3.1 9.8 (CRITICAL) · EPSS 99.8% (higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs) · Priority 9/10 · Published 2024-07-01

As of 2025-10-21, CVE-2024-36401 is a CRITICAL-severity vulnerability in geoserver, CVSS v3.1 9.8, EPSS 99.8% (99.9th percentile). It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2024-07-15), with a US federal remediation deadline of 2024-08-05. Threadlinqs Intelligence links 3 tracked threat campaigns to CVE-2024-36401, most recently “StrikeShark Campaign: SharkLoader Dropper Targets Governments and Software Developers via N-Day Exploits and Trojanized Installers to Deploy Cobalt Strike”.

Last updated: 2025-10-21

What is CVE-2024-36401?

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.

The record classifies CVE-2024-36401 under weakness class CWE-95. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs no prior authentication, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 804 days ago.

Severity and exploitation probability

CVSS v3.1 base score
9.8 — CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS (FIRST)
99.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs
CISA KEV
Listed since 2024-07-15, federal remediation deadline 2024-08-05
Threadlinqs priority
9/10 — CISA KEV-listed, which Threadlinqs floors at 9
Published
2024-07-01, last modified 2025-10-21

Is CVE-2024-36401 being exploited?

CISA added CVE-2024-36401 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-07-15, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2024-08-05 under BOD 22-01. Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2024-36401 is publicly available. 11 public proof-of-concept repositories are tracked for this identifier. A ProjectDiscovery Nuclei detection template exists (http/cves/2024/CVE-2024-36401.yaml). It currently carries a trending score of 45 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

Affected products and versions

Affected software packages:

How to fix CVE-2024-36401

The record marks a vendor fix as available for CVE-2024-36401. Fixed versions are recorded for 12 packages: maven:org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app 2.24.4, maven:org.geoserver:gs-wfs 2.24.4, maven:org.geoserver:gs-wms 2.24.4, maven:org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app 2.25.2, maven:org.geoserver:gs-wfs 2.25.2, maven:org.geoserver:gs-wms 2.25.2, maven:org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app 2.23.6, maven:org.geoserver:gs-wfs 2.23.6, maven:org.geoserver:gs-wms 2.23.6, maven:org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app 2.22.6. Patch reference: https://github.com/geotools/geotools/pull/4797. Vendor advisory: https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/security/advisories/GHSA-6jj6-gm7p-fcvv. Because CVE-2024-36401 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2024-08-05. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.

Threat activity tracking CVE-2024-36401

3 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2024-36401, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, NVD, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV, GitHub Security Advisories, public proof-of-concept repositories, ProjectDiscovery Nuclei. Last verified by Threadlinqs on . This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Vendor advisory and patch

Other references

Full detection coverage & IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2024-36401 are available via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier). View plans →

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