CriticalCVE-2022-44877

    CWP Control Web Panel OS Command Injection Vulnerability (CVE-2022-44877)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: pwn.watch, CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    An OS command injection vulnerability in CWP Control Web Panel versions prior to 0.9.8.1147 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via shell metacharacters in the login parameter. This vulnerability permits remote code execution without authentication and is actively exploited in ransomware campaigns since 2023. All versions of CWP Control Web Panel before 0.9.8.1147 are affected. An immediate update to version 0.9.8.1147 is critical to mitigate this risk.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update Control Web Panel to version 0.9.8.1147. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Control Web Panel lt *..0.9.8.1147
    Fixed in
    • Control Web Panel 0.9.8.1147

    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: pwn.watch, 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
    230.90 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
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 29 January 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-78

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This flaw sits on KEV because it is a textbook pre-auth RCE on an administrative web panel — network-reachable, no authentication, no user interaction, full root code execution. Exploitation likelihood is among the very highest of any CVE tracked by EPSS: working exploits have been public since disclosure and are mass-scanned by opportunistic botnets (Mirai forks, cryptominers, initial-access brokers). The typical victim profile is shared-hosting providers, small ISPs, and self-managed web servers in SMB environments. For NIS2 or KRITIS-regulated organisations, every internet-exposed CWP instance below 0.9.8.1147 should be treated as P1 until patched; internally reachable instances remain P2 since lateral access preserves exploitability.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Upgrade every CWP/Control Web Panel instance to 0.9.8.1147 or later. The patch fixes the command injection in login/index.php and is the only durable remediation.
      • If immediate patching is not possible, block external access to the CWP admin ports at the perimeter firewall or reverse proxy (default TCP/2031 HTTPS, TCP/2030 HTTP, TCP/2083 HTTPS, TCP/2082 HTTP) and expose them only via VPN or an admin jump host.
      • Treat exposed hosts as potentially compromised (unauthenticated RCE, actively exploited since early 2023). Hunt for new entries in /root/.ssh/authorized_keys, unknown cron jobs in /etc/cron.* and /var/spool/cron/, suspicious systemd units, live reverse shells (ss -tnp, ps auxf), and webshells under /usr/local/cwpsrv/htdocs/ and /var/www/.
      • Rotate every credential reachable from the host: root password, MySQL/MariaDB root, API keys, stored FTP and mail passwords, and SSH keys. In hosting environments, also force resets on customer panel passwords.
      • Open a Critical-severity incident ticket. If personal data is involved, plan for NIS2 reporting (24 h early warning to the national CSIRT) and GDPR Art. 33 (72 h) as applicable.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: never expose the CWP management interface (2030-2031, 2082-2087) directly to the internet. Reachable only from an administrative VLAN behind an MFA-protected jump server.
      • WAF or reverse-proxy rule in front of login/index.php: block requests whose login parameter contains shell metacharacters (;, |, `, $(, &&, %0a, %0d and URL-encoded variants). ModSecurity example: SecRule ARGS:login "@rx [;|\x60\$\(\)&\n\r]" "id:1004487,phase:2,deny,log,msg:'CVE-2022-44877 attempt'".
      • Enable IPS coverage: Suricata/Snort signatures for CVE-2022-44877 are available from ET Open and commercial feeds. At minimum, alert on POST requests to /login/index.php with suspicious bodies.
      • Endpoint hardening: the cwpsrv process typically runs as root — watch for unprivileged child spawns, enforce SELinux/AppArmor where possible, and apply host-level egress filtering to block outbound traffic on common reverse-shell ports (4444, 1337) and to known C2 destinations.
      • Configuration hardening: disable risky PHP functions globally via disable_functions (exec, shell_exec, system, passthru, proc_open) unless a specific CWP feature strictly requires them.
      • IAM principle: dedicated admin accounts with hardware-token MFA at the reverse proxy; panel login only reachable after successful pre-authentication.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Web access logs (nginx/httpd fronting CWP): POST to /login/index.php with metacharacters in body or query string. KQL sketch: WebLogs | where cs_uri_stem endswith "/login/index.php" and (cs_body matches regex @"login=.*[;|$()&]" or cs_uri_query matches regex @"login=.*%(3B|7C|60|24|0A|0D)")`.
      • Sysmon EID 1 / auditd execve: process ancestry where parent is cwpsrv, httpd or php-fpm and child is /bin/sh, bash, curl, wget, python, perl or nc. Sigma shape: parent_image|endswith: cwpsrv plus image|endswith: ['/sh','/bash','/curl','/wget'].
      • Network telemetry (Zeek conn.log): new outbound connections from the CWP host to non-whitelisted destinations within 60 seconds after an HTTP POST to /login/index.php.
      • Filesystem monitoring: new or modified executables in /tmp, /dev/shm, /var/tmp; additions to authorized_keys; auditd watch: -w /root/.ssh/authorized_keys -p wa -k ssh_persist.
      • Persistence monitoring: changes to /etc/crontab, /etc/cron.d/*, /var/spool/cron/root, and new systemd service units in /etc/systemd/system/.

    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

    login/index.php in CWP (aka Control Web Panel or CentOS Web Panel) 7 before 0.9.8.1147 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary OS commands via shell metacharacters in the login parameter.

    Source: pwn.watch, 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
    control-webpanelwebpanel
    • < 0.9.8.1147
    • 0.9.8.1147

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-78Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

      Base

      The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-78

    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
    Reference tagged as exploitseclists.org (opens in a new tab)PoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Reference tagged as exploitgist.github.com (opens in a new tab)PoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Packet StormControl Web Panel 7 Remote Code Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Packet StormControl Web Panel Unauthenticated Remote Command Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Packet StormControl Web Panel 7 CWP7 0.9.8.1147 Remote Code Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • youtube.comwatch?v=kiLfSvc1SYYExploit, Third-party advisory
    • gist.github.comnumanturle/c1e82c47f4cba24cff214e904c227386Exploit, Third-party advisory
    • seclists.org20230106 Centos Web Panel 7 Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution - CVE-2022-44877Mailing list, Exploit, Mailing list, Third-party advisory
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/170388/Control-Web-Panel-7-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/170820/Control-Web-Panel-Unauthenticated-Remote-Command-E…Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/171725/Control-Web-Panel-7-CWP7-0.9.8.1147-Remote-Code-Ex…Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-44877government-resource, US government resource
    • pwn.watchpwn.watch: CWP Control Web Panel: OS Command Injection (CVE-2022-44877)pwn-watch
    • control-webpanel.comVendor advisory: CWP Control Web Panelpwn-watch
    • NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2022-44877pwn-watch
    • cisa.govCISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogpwn-watch
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