CVE-2021-40822 — gs-main
HIGHCVE-2021-40822 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in org.geoserver:gs-main. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 19.3% (97th percentile). No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
GeoServer allows SSRF via the option for setting a proxy host
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-40822 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.geoserver:gs-main☕org.geoserver:gs-mainReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
GeoServer through 2.18.5 and 2.19.x through 2.19.2 allows SSRF via the option for setting a proxy host.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.geoserver:gs-main | all versions | No fix |
| ☕Maven | org.geoserver:gs-main | ≥ 2.19.0 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.geoserver:gs-main, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of org.geoserver:gs-main has shipped for CVE-2021-40822 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2021-40822 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2021-40822. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect CVE-2021-40822
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2021-40822 -u https://target- Template
- Geoserver - Server-Side Request Forgery
- Severity
- high
- Impact
- Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to unauthorized access to internal resources, data leakage, and potential remote code execution.
- Remediation
- Apply the latest security patches or updates provided by the Geoserver project to mitigate the SSRF vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (For3stCo1d, aringo-bf), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-40822 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2021-40822 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.