Open-Source Security Intelligence

Know every vulnerability
before it knows you.

DevGuard continuously monitors your dependencies and alerts you when CVEs like this one affect your stack — with real-time threat intelligence built for developers.

Search

GHSA-w3pj-wh35-fq8w

CriticalCVSS 9.8 / 10
Published Feb 5, 2025·Last modified Feb 4, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Summary

Remote Code Execution (RCE) is possible if an application uses certain GeoTools functionality to evaluate XPath expressions supplied by user input.

Details

The following methods pass XPath expressions to the commons-jxpath library which can execute arbitrary code and would be a security issue if the XPath expressions are provided by user input.

  • org.geotools.appschema.util.XmlXpathUtilites.getXPathValues(NamespaceSupport, String, Document)
  • org.geotools.appschema.util.XmlXpathUtilites.countXPathNodes(NamespaceSupport, String, Document)
  • org.geotools.appschema.util.XmlXpathUtilites.getSingleXPathValue(NamespaceSupport, String, Document)
  • org.geotools.data.complex.expression.FeaturePropertyAccessorFactory.FeaturePropertyAccessor.get(Object, String, Class<T>)
  • org.geotools.data.complex.expression.FeaturePropertyAccessorFactory.FeaturePropertyAccessor.set(Object, String, Object, Class)
  • org.geotools.data.complex.expression.MapPropertyAccessorFactory.new PropertyAccessor() {...}.get(Object, String, Class<T>)
  • org.geotools.xsd.StreamingParser.StreamingParser(Configuration, InputStream, String)

PoC

The following inputs to StreamingParser will delay the response by five seconds:

        new org.geotools.xsd.StreamingParser(
                        new org.geotools.filter.v1_0.OGCConfiguration(),
                        new java.io.ByteArrayInputStream("<Filter></Filter>".getBytes()),
                        "java.lang.Thread.sleep(5000)")
                .parse();

Impact

This vulnerability can lead to executing arbitrary code.

Mitigation

GeoTools can operate with reduced functionality by removing the gt-complex jar from your application. As an example of the impact application schema datastore would not function without the ability to use XPath expressions to query complex content.

The SourceForge download page lists drop-in-replacement jars for GeoTools: 31.1, 30.3, 30.2, 29.2, 28.2, 27.5, 27.4, 26.7, 26.4, 25.2, 24.0. These jars are for download only and are not available from maven central, intended to quickly provide a fix to affected applications.

References

https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/security/advisories/GHSA-6jj6-gm7p-fcvv https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOT-7587 https://github.com/geotools/geotools/pull/4797 https://github.com/Warxim/CVE-2022-41852?tab=readme-ov-file#workaround-for-cve-2022-41852

Risk Scores
Base Score
9.8

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
9.8

Active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. Immediate patching or mitigation is required.

EPSS
99.79%

The exploit probability is critical. The vulnerability is very likely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

Scan your project

Continuously monitor your dependencies and get alerted when vulnerabilities like this one affect your stack.

Checkout DevGuard