Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-28398

A privileged attacker in GeoNetwork before 3.12.0 and 4.x before 4.0.4 can use the directory harvester before-script to execute arbitrary OS commands remotely on the hosting infrastructure. A User Administrator or Administrator account is required to perform this. This occurs in the runBeforeScript method in harvesters/src/main/java/org/fao/geonet/kernel/harvest/harvester/localfilesystem/LocalFilesystemHarvester.java. The earliest affected version is 3.4.0.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.2, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from osgeo organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2022, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.

Published

2022-09-05T17:15:19.083

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:59:37.727

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.2 (HIGH)

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-78

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	osgeo	geonetwork	< 3.12.0	Yes
Application	osgeo	geonetwork	< 4.0.4	Yes
Application	osgeo	geonetwork	4.0.0	Yes
Application	osgeo	geonetwork	4.0.0	Yes

References

https://geonetwork-opensource.org/ Product ([email protected])
https://geonetwork-opensource.org/manuals/trunk/en/overview/change-log/version-3.6.0.html Patch, Release Notes, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
https://github.com/geonetwork/core-geonetwork Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://github.com/geonetwork/core-geonetwork/security/advisories/GHSA-cf8p-c88c-h9jf Mitigation, Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://geonetwork-opensource.org/ Product (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://geonetwork-opensource.org/manuals/trunk/en/overview/change-log/version-3.6.0.html Patch, Release Notes, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/geonetwork/core-geonetwork Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/geonetwork/core-geonetwork/security/advisories/GHSA-cf8p-c88c-h9jf Mitigation, Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For osgeo's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.