CriticalCVE-2022-29464

    WSO2 Multiple Products Unrestrictive Upload of File Vulnerability (CVE-2022-29464)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    Certain WSO2 products allow unrestricted file upload with resultant remote code execution. The attacker must use a /fileupload endpoint with a Content-Disposition directory traversal sequence to reach a directory under the web root, such as a ../../../../repository/deployment/server/webapps directory.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. CISA lists it as used in ransomware campaigns. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • WSO2 API Manager lte 2.2.0..4.0.0
    • WSO2 Enterprise Integrator lte 6.2.0..6.6.0
    • WSO2 Identity Server lte 5.2.0..5.11.0
    • WSO2 Identity Server Analytics eq 5.4.0..5.4.0
    • WSO2 Identity Server Analytics eq 5.4.1..5.4.1
    • WSO2 Identity Server Analytics eq 5.5.0..5.5.0
    • WSO2 Identity Server Analytics eq 5.6.0..5.6.0
    • WSO2 Identity Server as Key Manager lte 5.3.0..5.10.0
    • WSO2 Open Banking AM lte 1.3.0..2.0.0
    • WSO2 Open Banking IAM eq 2.0.0..2.0.0
    • WSO2 Open Banking KM lte 1.3.0..1.5.0

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    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    —

    EPSS score

    No value is available for this vulnerability.

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    254.70 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.99
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This CVE sits on KEV because it is network-reachable without authentication, has had a working public exploit (Metasploit module and multiple PoCs) since April 2022, and lands directly in RCE under the Carbon service account — the barrier to entry is minimal. CISA flags active use in ransomware campaigns; operators typically drop a JSP webshell, run discovery, and pivot into the attached identity backends (LDAP, AD, databases), which makes WSO2 one of the preferred initial-access points for ransomware and data-theft intrusions. Typical targets are internet-exposed API gateways and IAM components at banks, telcos, government bodies, and SaaS vendors — exactly the KRITIS/NIS2 perimeter. Score it top-shelf in any risk register: P1/Critical, patch or takedown SLA under 24 h, even if the instance appears to be internal-only.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Apply the WSO2 vendor fixes per advisory WSO2-2021-1738: upgrade API Manager to patched 4.0.0 (WUM update), Identity Server to patched 5.11.0, Enterprise Integrator to patched 6.6.0, Identity Server as Key Manager to patched 5.11.0; for Open Banking AM/KM request the hotfix via WSO2 support.
      • If patching cannot happen immediately, block or restrict every /fileupload endpoint at the upstream reverse proxy, WAF or load balancer (nginx, F5, Apache, Azure Front Door) so that only authenticated admin networks reach it.
      • Any WSO2 instance whose management ports (default 9443/tcp, 9763/tcp) are reachable from the internet or a flat DMZ must be taken off the wire or firewall-isolated now — assume compromise and triage forensically before patching.
      • Inspect every webapp directory under repository/deployment/server/webapps/ plus tmp/ for unexpected .jsp, .war or .class files (diff against a Git baseline or clean install); preserve artefacts (hash plus timestamp) before deletion.
      • Rotate secrets on any instance where RCE is suspected: Carbon admin password, keystore passwords (wso2carbon.jks), database credentials, LDAP bind accounts, OAuth client secrets, and invalidate issued session and refresh tokens.
      • Open the incident ticket in your NIS2 reporting chain; on confirmed compromise prepare the 24 h early-warning notification to the national CSIRT.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: expose the Carbon admin console (9443, 9763) only from an admin bastion VLAN; API gateway ports (8243, 8280) only via a reverse proxy with WAF in front.
      • WAF rule: block HTTP requests whose path ends in /fileupload AND whose Content-Disposition header contains ../ or URL-encoded variants (%2e%2e%2f, ..%2f, %2e%2e/); additionally drop uploads with filename=*.jsp|*.jspx|*.war|*.class.
      • Endpoint hardening: run WSO2 as a non-root Java user; make the webapps directory read-only for the service account via SELinux or AppArmor, writeable only by the deployment pipeline.
      • Egress filtering: constrain outbound connections from WSO2 hosts to an allowlist (updates, identity backends, DB); block reverse-shell-typical destinations such as pastebin, Interact.sh, transfer.sh, and arbitrary DNS exfil targets.
      • Configuration hardening: set [server] file_upload_size_limit restrictively in deployment.toml, disable unused features (Carbon UI, admin services where not needed) and review any HostObject-based JS execution.
      • IAM: dedicated service account per WSO2 product, no shared secrets across prod and non-prod; admin access only through an MFA-protected jump host with PAM session recording.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Web access logs (Carbon, nginx, F5): POST /fileupload* returning HTTP 200/201 with Content-Disposition containing ../ or %2e%2e — Sigma shape: selection: cs-method: POST, cs-uri-stem|contains: '/fileupload', cs-header|contains: '../'.
      • Filesystem monitoring (auditd / Sysmon FileCreate EID 11): new .jsp, .war or .class files under */repository/deployment/server/webapps/* outside the deployment window.
      • Process ancestry (Sysmon EID 1 / EDR): child processes of java (WSO2 Carbon) such as sh, bash, cmd.exe, powershell.exe, curl, wget, nc, python — on a production WSO2 host these are almost always malicious.
      • Network (Zeek/Suricata): outbound HTTP/HTTPS/TCP from WSO2 hosts to Interact.sh, oast.site, burpcollaborator, pastebin, transfer.sh, or dynamic DNS domains; enable existing Suricata ET WEB_SPECIFIC_APPS rules in the 2036060 range.
      • KQL example (Defender/Sentinel) for follow-up webshells: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName == "java.exe" or InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "wso2carbon" | where FileName in ("sh","bash","cmd.exe","powershell.exe","nc.exe","curl.exe").

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Certain WSO2 products allow unrestricted file upload with resultant remote code execution. The attacker must use a /fileupload endpoint with a Content-Disposition directory traversal sequence to reach a directory under the web root, such as a ../../../../repository/deployment/server/webapps directory. This affects WSO2 API Manager 2.2.0 up to 4.0.0, WSO2 Identity Server 5.2.0 up to 5.11.0, WSO2 Identity Server Analytics 5.4.0, 5.4.1, 5.5.0 and 5.6.0, WSO2 Identity Server as Key Manager 5.3.0 up to 5.11.0, WSO2 Enterprise Integrator 6.2.0 up to 6.6.0, WSO2 Open Banking AM 1.4.0 up to 2.0.0 and WSO2 Open Banking KM 1.4.0, up to 2.0.0.

    Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    wso2api_manager
    • 2.2.0 – ≤ 4.0.0
    • —
    wso2enterprise_integrator
    • 6.2.0 – ≤ 6.6.0
    • —
    wso2identity_server
    • 5.2.0 – ≤ 5.11.0
    • —
    wso2identity_server_analytics
    • 5.5.0
    • 5.4.0
    • 5.4.1
    • 5.6.0
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    wso2identity_server_as_key_manager
    • 5.3.0 – ≤ 5.10.0
    • —
    wso2open_banking_am
    • 1.3.0 – ≤ 2.0.0
    • —
    wso2open_banking_iam
    • 2.0.0
    • —
    wso2open_banking_km
    • 1.3.0 – ≤ 1.5.0
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    GitHubhakivvi/CVE-2022-29464 (opens in a new tab)github.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Packet StormWSO Arbitrary File Upload Remote Code Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • openwall.com[oss-security] 20220422 CVE-2022-29464 :: WSO2 Unrestricted arbitrary file upload, and remote code to execution vulnerability.Mailing list, Mailing list, Third-party advisory
    • github.comhakivvi/CVE-2022-29464Exploit, Third-party advisory
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/166921/WSO-Arbitrary-File-Upload-Remote-Code-Execution.ht…Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • security.docs.wso2.comen/latest/security-announcements/security-advisories/2022/WSO2-…Vendor advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-29464government-resource, US government resource
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