CVE-2023-36479 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.5) vulnerability in org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Jetty vulnerable to errant command quoting in CGI Servlet
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2023-36479.
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-2023-36479 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 379,145 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
org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets☕org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets☕org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets☕org.eclipse.jetty.ee10:jetty-ee10-servlets☕org.eclipse.jetty.ee9:jetty-ee9-servlets☕org.eclipse.jetty.ee8:jetty-ee8-servletsReal-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
If a user sends a request to a org.eclipse.jetty.servlets.CGI Servlet for a binary with a space in its name, the servlet will escape the command by wrapping it in quotation marks. This wrapped command, plus an optional command prefix, will then be executed through a call to Runtime.exec. If the original binary name provided by the user contains a quotation mark followed by a space, the resulting command line will contain multiple tokens instead of one. For example, if a request references a binary called file” name “here, the escaping algorithm will generate the command line string “file” name “here”, which will invoke the binary named file, not the one that the user requested.
if (execCmd.length() > 0 && execCmd.charAt(0) != '"' && execCmd.contains(" "))
execCmd = "\"" + execCmd + "\"";
Exploit Scenario
The cgi-bin directory contains a binary named exec and a subdirectory named exec” commands, which contains a file called bin1. The user sends to the CGI servlet a request for the filename exec” commands/bin1. This request will pass the file existence check on lines 194 through 205. The servlet will add quotation marks around this filename, resulting in the command line string “exec” commands/bin1”. When this string is passed to Runtime.exec, instead of executing the bin1 binary, the server will execute the exec binary with the argument commands/file1”. In addition to being incorrect, this behavior may bypass alias checks, and it may cause other unintended behaviors if a command prefix is configured.
If the useFullPath configuration setting is off, the command need not pass the existence check. The attack would not rely on a binary and subdirectory having similar names, and the attack will succeed on a much wider variety of directory structures.
Impact
Users of the org.eclipse.jetty.servlets.CGI Servlet with a very specific command structure may have the wrong command executed.
Patches
No patch.
In Jetty 9.x, 10.x, and 11.x the org.eclipse.jetty.servlets.CGI has been deprecated.
In Jetty 12 (all environments) the org.eclipse.jetty.servlets.CGI has been entirely removed.
Workarounds
The org.eclipse.jetty.servlets.CGI Servlet should not be used. Fast CGI support is available instead.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets | ≥ 9.0.0&&< 9.4.52 | 9.4.52org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets:9.4.52 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets | ≥ 10.0.0&&< 10.0.16 | 10.0.16org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets:10.0.16 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets | ≥ 11.0.0&&< 11.0.16 | 11.0.16org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets:11.0.16 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty.ee10:jetty-ee10-servlets | all versions | 12.0.0-beta2org.eclipse.jetty.ee10:jetty-ee10-servlets:12.0.0-beta2 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty.ee9:jetty-ee9-servlets | all versions | 12.0.0-beta2org.eclipse.jetty.ee9:jetty-ee9-servlets:12.0.0-beta2 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty.ee8:jetty-ee8-servlets | all versions | 12.0.0-beta2org.eclipse.jetty.ee8:jetty-ee8-servlets:12.0.0-beta2 |
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 org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-servlets to 9.4.52 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-36479 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-2023-36479 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-36479. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Migration Toolkit for Runtimes 1 on RHEL 8 | mtr/mtr-operator-bundle:1.2-23 | RHSA-2024:3919 |
| MTA-6.2-RHEL-9 | mta/mta-windup-addon-rhel9:6.2.3-2 | RHSA-2024:3989 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.12.1 | jetty-servlets | RHSA-2023:7247 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.13.0 | jetty-servlets | RHSA-2024:3354 |
| Red Hat Satellite 6.14 for RHEL 8 | candlepin-0:4.3.11-1.el8sat | RHSA-2024:0797 |
| Red Hat Satellite 6.15 for RHEL 8 | puppetserver-0:7.14.0-1.el8sat | RHSA-2024:2010 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-36479 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-36479 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.