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CRITICAL severity

CVE-2023-35042 — gs-wms

CRITICAL

CVE-2023-35042 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) remote code execution vulnerability in org.geoserver:gs-wms. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.geoserver:gs-wms — see the affected versions and patch details below.

GeoServer RCE due to improper control of generation of code in jai-ext`Jiffle` map algebra language

Published
Updated
Affected
9 pkgs
Patched
9 / 9
Exploits
1 known
Exploitation data as of Nov 6, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

  • 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.
  • CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-35042.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
44.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
High Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs99th percentile — riskier than 99% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
31.1%36.7%42.4%48.0%34.3%44.8%May 26Sep 26Nov 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

9 pkgs affected
☕org.geoserver:gs-wms☕org.geoserver:gs-wfs☕org.geoserver:gs-wms☕org.geoserver:gs-wfs☕org.geoserver:gs-wms☕org.geoserver:gs-wfs☕org.geoserver:gs-wps☕org.geoserver:gs-wps+1 more

Real-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 2, in some configurations, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime().exec in wps:LiteralData within a wps:Execute request, as exploited in the wild in June 2023.

RCE in Jiffle

The Jiffle map algebra language, provided by jai-ext, allows efficiently execute map algebra over large images. A vulnerability CVE-2022-24816 has been recently found in Jiffle, that allows a Code Injection to be performed by properly crafting a Jiffle invocation.

In the case of GeoServer, the injection can be performed from a remote request.

Assessment

GeoTools includes the Jiffle language as part of the gt-process-raster-<version> module, applications using it should check whether it’s possible to provide a Jiffle script from remote, and if so, upgrade or remove the functionality (see also the GeoServer mitigation, below).

The issue is of particular interest for GeoServer users, as GeoServer embeds Jiffle in the base WAR package. Jiffle is available as a OGC function, for usage in SLD rendering transformations.

This allows for a Remote Code Execution in properly crafted OGC requests, as well as from the administration console, when editing SLD files.

Mitigations

In case you cannot upgrade at once, then the following mitigation is strongly recommended:

  1. Stop GeoServer
  2. Open the war file, get into WEB-INF/lib and remove the janino-<version>.jar
  3. Restart GeoServer.

This effectively removes the Jiffle ability to compile scripts in Java code, from any of the potential attack vectors (Janino is the library used to turn the Java code generated from the Jiffle script, into executable bytecode).

GeoServer should still work properly after the removal, but any attempt to use Jiffle will result in an exception.

Affected Packages

9 total 9 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.geoserver:gs-wmsall versions2.18.6org.geoserver:gs-wms:2.18.6
☕Mavenorg.geoserver:gs-wfsall versions2.18.6org.geoserver:gs-wfs:2.18.6
☕Mavenorg.geoserver:gs-wms≥ 2.19.0&&< 2.19.62.19.6org.geoserver:gs-wms:2.19.6
☕Mavenorg.geoserver:gs-wfs≥ 2.19.0&&< 2.19.62.19.6org.geoserver:gs-wfs:2.19.6
☕Mavenorg.geoserver:gs-wms≥ 2.20.0&&< 2.20.42.20.4org.geoserver:gs-wms:2.20.4
☕Mavenorg.geoserver:gs-wfs≥ 2.20.0&&< 2.20.42.20.4org.geoserver:gs-wfs:2.20.4

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
geoservergeoserver
≥ 2.0.0
range
Exploits & PoCs
1

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

GeoServer 2, in some configurations, allows remote attackers to execute …

nvd.nist.govNVDJun 2023

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.geoserver:gs-wms, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update org.geoserver:gs-wms to 2.18.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-35042 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.

Frequently Asked Questions

GeoServer 2, in some configurations, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via `java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime().exec` in `wps:LiteralData` within a `wps:Execute` request, as exploited in the wild in June 2023. ## RCE in Jiffle The Jiffle map algebra language, provided by jai-ext, allows efficiently execute map algebra over large images. A vulnerability [CVE-2022-24816](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-24816) has been recently found in Jiffle, that allows a Code Injection to be performed by properly crafting a Jiffle invocation. In the case of GeoServer, the injection can
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2023-35042: gs-wms RCE — Fixed in 2.18.6