CriticalCVE-2022-26352

    dotCMS Unrestricted Upload of File Vulnerability (CVE-2022-26352)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    An issue was discovered in the ContentResource API in dotCMS 3.0 through 22.02. Attackers can craft a multipart form request to post a file whose filename is not initially sanitized.

    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
    • dotCMS lte 3.0..22.02

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    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

    91.3 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.81

    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
    254.82 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.

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    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.

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    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 score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

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    91.3 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    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.

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    99.81
    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
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 22 December 2023

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This CVE is on KEV because it is network-reachable without authentication and leads directly to remote code execution — a textbook initial-access vector that CISA has confirmed in ransomware campaigns. Public exploit code, including a Metasploit module, has been available since May 2022, and the exploitation likelihood ranks among the highest of any tracked CVE. Internet-exposed dotCMS instances with anonymous content creation enabled must be treated as P1 and patched or taken offline within 24-48 h; internal instances in NIS2 scope (public-sector portals, critical-infrastructure CMS) also warrant P1 handling because a compromised DMZ node is a prime pivot point for lateral movement.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Upgrade dotCMS to 22.03 or later (the fix sanitises the uploaded filename in the ContentResource endpoint). For LTS branches apply the matching hotfix from the dotCMS support portal — confirm the patch ID in the vendor advisory.
      • If immediate patching is not feasible, disable anonymous content creation in dotCMS system properties / dotmarketing-config.properties (set to false). This removes the unauthenticated attack vector.
      • Block or strictly filter unauthenticated multipart POSTs against /api/content/ and /api/content/publish/ at the reverse proxy (nginx, Apache, F5, Cloudflare).
      • Inspect the webroot and asset directories (/dotsecure/, assets/, Tomcat webapps/ROOT/) for newly created .jsp, .jspx or .war files dating back to February 2022; preserve forensic copies before overwriting.
      • Rotate the Tomcat/dotCMS service-account credentials and any API/DB secrets stored inside dotCMS if compromise is suspected.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: keep dotCMS in a dedicated DMZ zone; default-deny outbound to the Internet, allow only update mirrors. Block common reverse-shell ports (4444, 1337, arbitrary high ports) at the perimeter firewall.
      • WAF rule (ModSecurity-style): reject multipart requests to /api/content/* where the filename parameter contains ../, ..\, URL-encoded variants (%2e%2e%2f, ..%252f), or executable extensions (.jsp, .jspx, .jar, .war, .class).
      • Tomcat hardening: disable the JSP servlet in the ROOT webapp if dotCMS does not render user-supplied JSPs, and ensure readonly=true on the DefaultServlet. Restrict JSP execution to the application directory via web.xml.
      • Filesystem permissions: mount upload directories with noexec where possible; use ACLs so the Tomcat user can write only inside assets/, never into webapps/ROOT/.
      • EDR policy: treat process creation by the Java/Tomcat parent (java → sh/bash/cmd.exe/powershell.exe) as a high-severity alert and optionally block it.
      • Snapshot assets/ before patch rollout so you can run a clean diff afterwards.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Web access logs: POST /api/content/publish or /api/content/ with Content-Type: multipart/form-data from unauthenticated sessions. Sigma shape: selection: cs-method=POST AND cs-uri-stem contains "/api/content" AND cs-user-agent not in known_admin_tools.
      • Filesystem monitoring (auditd / Sysmon EID 11): any file creation under **/webapps/ROOT/**/*.jsp or outside assets/ performed by the Tomcat UID — immediate alert.
      • Process ancestry (Sysmon EID 1 / EDR): parent java.exe or java spawning cmd.exe, powershell.exe, sh, bash, nc, curl, wget. KQL snippet: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName == "java.exe" and FileName in ("cmd.exe","powershell.exe","sh","bash").
      • Network telemetry: outbound connections from the dotCMS host to non-approved IPs on ports 4444, 1337, 8443 or Tor-typical 9001, or DNS lookups to Pastebin/Interact-sh style domains.
      • Suricata/Snort: signature matching ..%2f or literal ../ inside the filename= field of a multipart body targeting the dotCMS vhost on 443/8080.

    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

    An issue was discovered in the ContentResource API in dotCMS 3.0 through 22.02. Attackers can craft a multipart form request to post a file whose filename is not initially sanitized. This allows directory traversal, in which the file is saved outside of the intended storage location. If anonymous content creation is enabled, this allows an unauthenticated attacker to upload an executable file, such as a .jsp file, that can lead to remote code execution.

    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
    dotcmsdotcms
    • 3.0 – ≤ 22.02
    • —

    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
    Packet StormdotCMS Shell Upload (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • groups.google.comg/dotcmsx_refsource_MISC, Permissions required, Third-party advisory
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/167365/dotCMS-Shell-Upload.htmlx_refsource_MISC, Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-26352government-resource, US government resource
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