How severe is CVE-2024-36401?

CVE-2024-36401 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2024-36401?

CVE-2024-36401 affects the following packages: org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app (Maven), org.geoserver:gs-wfs (Maven), org.geoserver:gs-wms (Maven), org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app (Maven), org.geoserver:gs-wfs (Maven), org.geoserver:gs-wms (Maven), org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app (Maven), org.geoserver:gs-wfs (Maven), and 4 more. Ecosystems affected: Maven.

How do I fix CVE-2024-36401?

Update org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app to 2.24.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-36401 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2024-36401 in my Maven dependencies?

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

How do I mitigate CVE-2024-36401 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is CVE-2024-36401 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 25 known exploit references for CVE-2024-36401, including 16 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2024-36401?

CVE-2024-36401 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 99.8%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2024-36401 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2024-36401 (OSGeo GeoServer GeoTools Eval Injection Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2024-07-15. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2024-08-05. The required action was: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2024-36401?

CVE-2024-36401 is classified as CWE-95 (CWE-95), Code Injection (CWE-94). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2024-36401?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2024-36401, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2024-36401 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2024-36401 was published on July 1, 2024 and was last updated on October 21, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

☕

☕ Maven

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2024-36401 — gs-web-app

CRITICALFix: geotools/geotools#4797

CVE-2024-36401 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-95 vulnerability in org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2024-07-15) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in evaluating property name expressions in Geoserver

Also known asGHSA-6jj6-gm7p-fcvv

Published

Jul 1, 2024

Updated

Oct 21, 2026

Affected

12 pkgs

Patched

12 / 12

Exploits

25 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-07-15. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2024-08-05.
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 (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2024-36401.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

99.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2024-36401 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

12 pkgs affected

☕org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app☕org.geoserver:gs-wfs☕org.geoserver:gs-wms☕org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app☕org.geoserver:gs-wfs☕org.geoserver:gs-wms☕org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app☕org.geoserver:gs-wfs+4 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

Summary

Multiple OGC request parameters allow Remote Code Execution (RCE) by unauthenticated users through specially crafted input against a default GeoServer installation due to unsafely evaluating property names as XPath expressions.

Details

The GeoTools library API that GeoServer calls evaluates property/attribute names for feature types in a way that unsafely passes them to the commons-jxpath library which can execute arbitrary code when evaluating XPath expressions. This XPath evaluation is intended to be used only by complex feature types (i.e., Application Schema data stores) but is incorrectly being applied to simple feature types as well which makes this vulnerability apply to ALL GeoServer instances.

PoC

No public PoC is provided but this vulnerability has been confirmed to be exploitable through WFS GetFeature, WFS GetPropertyValue, WMS GetMap, WMS GetFeatureInfo, WMS GetLegendGraphic and WPS Execute requests.

Impact

This vulnerability can lead to executing arbitrary code.

Workaround

A workaround exists by removing the gt-complex-x.y.jar file from the GeoServer where x.y is the GeoTools version (e.g., gt-complex-31.1.jar if running GeoServer 2.25.1). This will remove the vulnerable code from GeoServer but may break some GeoServer functionality or prevent GeoServer from deploying if the gt-complex module is needed by an extension you are using:

Mitigation for geoserver.war deploy:

Stop the application server
Unzip geoserver.war into a directory
Locate the file WEB-INF/lib/gt-complex-x.y.jar and remove
Zip the directory into a new geoserver.war
Restart the application server

Mitigation for GeoServer binary:

Stop Jetty
Locate the file webapps/geoserver/WEB-INF/lib/gt-complex-x.y.jar and remove
Restart Jetty

The following extensions and community modules are known to have a direct dependency on gt-complex jar and are not expected function properly without it. This is not comprehensive list and additional GeoServer functionality may be dependent on the availability of gt-complex jar:

Extensions: Application Schema, Catalog Services for the Web, MongoDB Data Store
Community Modules: Features-Templating, OGC API Modules, Smart Data Loader, SOLR Data Store

Mitigation available for prior releases patching three jars in your existing install:

Patched gt-app-schema, gt-complex and gt-xsd-core jars may be downloaded for GeoServer: 2.25.1, 2.24.3, 2.24.2, 2.23.2, 2.22.2, 2.21.5, 2.21.4,2.20.7, 2.20.4, 2.19.2, 2.18.0.

As example the 2.25.1 page links to geoserver-2.25.1-patches.zip download on source forge.
Unzip the geoserver-x.y.z-patches.zip which contains three jars that have been patched to configure commons-jxpath with an empty function list prior to use. These files are drop-in replacements with identical file names to those they are replacing.
Follow the instructions above to locate WEB-INF/lib folder and replace the existing gt-app-schema, gt-complex and gt-xsd-core jars with those supplied by the patch.

References

https://github.com/geotools/geotools/security/advisories/GHSA-w3pj-wh35-fq8w https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOT-7587 https://github.com/geotools/geotools/pull/4797 https://github.com/Warxim/CVE-2022-41852?tab=readme-ov-file#workaround-for-cve-2022-41852

Affected Packages

12 total 12 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
☕Maven	`org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app`	≥ 2.24.0&&< 2.24.4	2.24.4`org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app:2.24.4`
☕Maven	`org.geoserver:gs-wfs`	≥ 2.24.0&&< 2.24.4	2.24.4`org.geoserver:gs-wfs:2.24.4`
☕Maven	`org.geoserver:gs-wms`	≥ 2.24.0&&< 2.24.4	2.24.4`org.geoserver:gs-wms:2.24.4`
☕Maven	`org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app`	≥ 2.25.0&&< 2.25.2	2.25.2`org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app:2.25.2`
☕Maven	`org.geoserver:gs-wfs`	≥ 2.25.0&&< 2.25.2	2.25.2`org.geoserver:gs-wfs:2.25.2`
☕Maven	`org.geoserver:gs-wms`	≥ 2.25.0&&< 2.25.2	2.25.2`org.geoserver:gs-wms:2.25.2`

Affected Products

2 products · 11 configurations

Application

geoservergeoserver

≥ 2.25.0 && < 2.25.2

range

Application

geotoolsgeotools

≥ 31.1 && < 31.2

2 versions

30.031.0

Exploits & PoCs

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