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
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-2024-38524 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 378,156 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.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 |
Detection & 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
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-2024-38524 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-38524. 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-2024-38524 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-38524 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.