CVE-2024-38524 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Information Exposure vulnerability in org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app. A fix is available for org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app — see the affected versions and patch details below.
GWC Home Page communicate version and revision information
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.
- 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-2024-38524.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app☕org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app☕org.geoserver:gs-gwc☕org.geoserver:gs-gwcReal-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
The GeoWebCache home page includes version and revision information about the software in use. This information is sensitive from a security point of view because it allows software used by the server to be easily identified.
Details
org.geowebcache.GeoWebCacheDispatcher.handleFrontPage(HttpServletRequest, HttpServletResponse) has no check to hide potentially sensitive information from users except for a hidden system property to hide the storage locations that defaults to showing the locations.
PoC
Just open http://localhost:8080/geoserver/gwc/
Impact
In addition to exposing the version and revision information, the home page will expose the config file and storage locations which may expose the system's temp directory location and whether or not GeoServer is running in a Windows operating system. The approximate server start time and some basic GWC usage information is also exposed.
References
https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOS-11677 https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/pull/8189 https://github.com/GeoWebCache/geowebcache/issues/1344 https://github.com/GeoWebCache/geowebcache/pull/1345
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app | ≥ 2.26.0&&< 2.26.2 | 2.26.2org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app:2.26.2 |
| ☕Maven | org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app | all versions | 2.25.6org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app:2.25.6 |
| ☕Maven | org.geoserver:gs-gwc | ≥ 2.26.0&&< 2.26.2 | 2.26.2org.geoserver:gs-gwc:2.26.2 |
| ☕Maven | org.geoserver:gs-gwc | all versions | 2.25.6org.geoserver:gs-gwc:2.25.6 |
Affected Products
geoserverosgeoDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
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.
Fix
Update org.geoserver.web:gs-web-app to 2.26.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-38524 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-38524 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.