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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 10 Jun 2022.
GoaheadApplication · Embedthis

CVE-2017-17562

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2017-12-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.6.5 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Embedthis GoAhead before 3.6.5 allows remote code execution if CGI is enabled and a CGI program is dynamically linked. This is a result of initializing the environment of forked CGI scripts using untrusted HTTP request parameters in the cgiHandler function in cgi.c. When combined with the glibc dynamic linker, this behaviour can be abused for remote code execution using special parameter names such as LD_PRELOAD. An attacker can POST their shared object payload in the body of the request, and reference it using /proc/self/fd/0.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Embedthis GoAhead before 3.6.5 has a remote code execution vulnerability in the cgiHandler function in cgi.c. When CGI is enabled and CGI programs are dynamically linked, the server passes untrusted HTTP request parameters as environment variables to forked CGI processes. This allows attackers to inject LD_PRELOAD and similar dynamic linker variables, enabling execution of malicious shared objects supplied via POST requests to /proc/self/fd/0.

MitigationUpgrade to GoAhead 3.6.5 or later. If upgrading is not possible, disable CGI entirely or ensure all CGI programs are statically linked to prevent dynamic linker abuse.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
GoaheadApplication
Affected:< 3.6.5
Integrated Lights Out ManagerApplication
Affected:= 3.0= 4.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify GoAhead version
    Run 'goahead -v' or check the binary version information. On Linux, also check package manager listings (dpkg -l, rpm -q). For Oracle ILOM, check via 'ipmitool -V' or the ILOM web interface version display.
    Affected if Version is lower than 3.6.5, or version is exactly 3.0 or 4.0 for Oracle ILOM products.
  2. Locate GoAhead configuration file
    Common paths: /etc/goahead.conf, /etc/config/goahead, /etc/httpd/conf.d/goahead.conf, or check the working directory for goahead.config. On Windows, check the installation directory.
    Affected if Configuration file exists, indicating CGI may be configurable.
  3. Check if CGI is enabled
    In the configuration file, search for 'CGI' or 'cgi' directives. Look for lines like 'CGIEnable Yes', 'EnableCGI yes', or similar. Also check for 'cgi' entries in handler sections.
    Affected if CGI is explicitly enabled (value set to Yes, On, or 1), or CGI handler is defined in the handlers section.
  4. Identify CGI program locations
    In the configuration, find 'CgiHandler', 'CGI Interpreter', or 'cgidir' directives that specify the path to CGI programs (commonly /cgi-bin/). List the executable files in those directories using 'ls -l'.
    Affected if CGI directory contains executable programs that could be invoked by the server.
  5. Check CGI program linkage type
    Use 'ldd <cgi-program-path>' on suspected CGI executables to examine their dynamic dependencies. Static linking will show no or minimal shared library references. This step requires shell access to the server.
    Affected if CGI programs are dynamically linked (ldd shows lib*.so dependencies), making them vulnerable to LD_PRELOAD injection.

You are affected if GoAhead version is below 3.6.5 (or Oracle ILOM 3.0/4.0), CGI is enabled in the configuration, and your CGI programs are dynamically linked.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.6.5 or later
Fixed in 3.6.5
Vendor patch www.oracle.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to GoAhead 3.6.5 or later. If upgrading is not possible, disable CGI entirely or ensure all CGI programs are statically linked to prevent dynamic linker abuse.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

GoAhead 3.6.5 or later; Oracle ILOM via latest CPU

  1. 1. Identify all systems running GoAhead web server versions prior to 3.6.5
  2. 2. For GoAhead: Upgrade to version 3.6.5 or later which contains the fix for the CGI environment variable injection vulnerability
  3. 3. If CGI is not required, consider disabling CGI functionality in the GoAhead configuration as a defense-in-depth measure
  4. 4. For Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) versions 3.0 and 4.0: Apply the latest Oracle Critical Patch Update that addresses this vulnerability, or contact Oracle support for the specific patch
  5. 5. After applying the fix, verify that CGI functionality works correctly and the vulnerability is no longer exploitable
Caveat Minor: Upgrading GoAhead may introduce compatibility changes; verify custom CGI scripts work with the new version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Goahead Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing5.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,790
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-17562 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data