CVE-2022-24803 is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) OS Command Injection vulnerability in asciidoctor-include-ext. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for asciidoctor-include-ext — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Command Injection vulnerability in asciidoctor-include-ext
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-24803.
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-2022-24803 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 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
asciidoctor-include-extReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Applications using Asciidoctor (Ruby) with asciidoctor-include-ext (prior to version 0.4.0), which render user-supplied input in AsciiDoc markup, may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary system commands on the host operating system. This attack is possible even when (EDIT: it’s not)allow-uri-read is disabled!
Patches
The vulnerability has been fixed in commit c7ea001 (and further improved in cbaccf3), which is included in version 0.4.0.
Workarounds
require 'asciidoctor/include_ext'
class Asciidoctor::IncludeExt::IncludeProcessor
# Overrides superclass private method to mitigate Command Injection
# vulnerability in asciidoctor-include-ext <0.4.0.
def target_uri?(target)
target.downcase.start_with?('http://', 'https://') \
&& URI.parse(target).is_a?(URI::HTTP)
rescue URI::InvalidURIError
false
end
end
References
Credits
This vulnerability was discovered by Joern Schneeweisz from the GitLab Security Research Team.
For more information
See commit message c7ea001.
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory open an issue in jirutka/asciidoctor-include-ext.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | asciidoctor-include-ext | all versions | 0.4.0bundle update asciidoctor-include-ext --conservative |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for asciidoctor-include-ext, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update asciidoctor-include-ext to 0.4.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-24803 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
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-2022-24803 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-24803. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-24803 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-24803 across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.