# CVE-2024-36401: Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in evaluating property name expressions in Geoserver

> CVE-2024-36401: Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in evaluating property name expressions in Geoserver. CVSS 9.8 (CVSS 3.1), in CISA KEV.

Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2024-36401
Last updated: 2025-10-21T22:56:21Z

- Published: 2024-07-01 15:25 UTC · Updated: 2025-10-21 22:56 UTC · Assigner: GitHub\_M
- CVSS: 9.8 (CVSS 3.1) · Severity: Critical · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS: 99.8%, 100th percentile (scored 2026-10-25)
- CISA KEV: yes, added 2024-07-15, federal due date 2024-08-05, ransomware use: Unknown
- CWE: CWE-95

## Description

GeoServer is an open source server that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Prior to versions 2.22.6, 2.23.6, 2.24.4, and 2.25.2, 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. 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. 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. This vulnerability can lead to executing arbitrary code. Versions 2.22.6, 2.23.6, 2.24.4, and 2.25.2 contain a patch for the issue. 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.

## CISA required action

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

## Affected vendors and products

- geoserver: geoserver

## References

- [CVE record on cve.org](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-36401)
- [NVD entry](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-36401)
- [https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/security/advisories/GHSA-6jj6-gm7p-fcvv](https://github.com/geoserver/geoserver/security/advisories/GHSA-6jj6-gm7p-fcvv)
- [https://github.com/geotools/geotools/pull/4797](https://github.com/geotools/geotools/pull/4797)
- [https://github.com/geotools/geotools/security/advisories/GHSA-w3pj-wh35-fq8w](https://github.com/geotools/geotools/security/advisories/GHSA-w3pj-wh35-fq8w)
- [https://github.com/Warxim/CVE-2022-41852?tab=readme-ov-file\#workaround-for-cve-2022-41852](https://github.com/Warxim/CVE-2022-41852?tab=readme-ov-file#workaround-for-cve-2022-41852)
- [https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOT-7587](https://osgeo-org.atlassian.net/browse/GEOT-7587)

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_Sources: CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (https://www.cve.org/) This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (https://nvd.nist.gov/) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (https://www.first.org/epss/)_


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Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2024-36401 · Markdown: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2024-36401.md · JSON: https://rewindex.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2024-36401 · Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · Generated 2026-10-26T04:04:37.244Z