CVE-2023-51444

highpriority · track · 30EPSS 0.019 · 79 %ileEUUS
grimoire priorityP2 · Scheduled
Exploitable?
—
no known exploitation
Likely / severe?
1.87% (79th) EPSS
CVSS 7.2 · high
Is it mine?
9 products
Check your exposure
Who says so?
4 sources
cnnvd · enisa_euvd · nvd · osv

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

GeoServer is an open source software server written in Java that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. An arbitrary file upload vulnerability exists in versions prior to 2.23.4 and 2.24.1 that enables an authenticated administrator with permissions to modify coverage stores through the REST Coverage Store API to upload arbitrary file contents to arbitrary file locations which can lead to remote code execution. Coverage stores that are configured using relative paths use a GeoServer Resource implementation that has validation to prevent path traversal but coverage stores that are configured using absolute paths use a different Resource implementation that does not prevent path traversal. This vulnerability can lead to executing arbitrary code. An administrator with limited privileges could also potentially exploit this to overwrite GeoServer security files and obtain full administrator privileges. Versions 2.23.4 and 2.24.1 contain a fix for this issue.

01

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

7.2
010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 6.8–7.2

v3.17.2highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 1.2 · impact 5.9
v3.17.2highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsecondary · ENISA EU
v3.17.2highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsecondary · security-advisories@github.comexploitability 1.2 · impact 5.9
v3.17.2highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsecondary · OSV
v3.16.8mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:Psecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)
02

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS
03

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

04

affected products (9)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

05

advisories (1)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

  • GHSA-9v5q-2gwq-q9hqArbitrary file upload vulnerability in GeoServer's REST Coverage Store API2024-03-20ghsa · osvUS

    ### Summary An arbitrary file upload vulnerability exists that enables an authenticated administrator with permissions to modify coverage stores through the REST Coverage Store API to upload arbitrary file contents to arbitrary file locations which can lead to remote code execution. ### Details Coverage stores that are configured using relative paths use a GeoServer Resource implementation that has validation to prevent path traversal but coverage stores that are configured using absolute paths use a different Resource implementation that does not prevent path traversal. ### PoC Step 1 (create sample coverage store): curl -vXPUT -H"Content-type:application/zip" -u"admin:geoserver" --data-binary @polyphemus.zip "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces/sf/coveragestores/filewrite/file.imagemosaic" Step 2 (switch store to absolute URL): curl -vXPUT -H"Content-Type:application/xml" -u"admin:geoserver" -d"<coverageStore><url>file:///{absolute path to data directory}/data/sf/filewrite</url></coverageStore>" "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces/sf/coveragestores/filewrite" Step 3 (upload arbitrary files): curl -vH"Content-Type:" -u"admin:geoserver" --data-binary @file/to/upload "http://localhost:8080/geoserver/rest/workspaces/sf/coveragestores/filewrite/file.a?filename=../../../../../../../../../../file/to/write" Steps 1 & 2 can be combined into a single POST REST call if local write access to anywhere on the the file system that GeoServer can read is possible (e.g., the /tmp directory). ### Impact This vulnerability can lead to executing arbitrary code. An administrator with limited privileges could also potentially exploit this to overwrite GeoServer security files and obtain full administrator privileges. ### References https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-11176 https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/pull/7222

06

also known as (3)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

07

sources

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published 2024-03-20modified 2026-06-17
09

references (16)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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