CVE-2022-38189
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 · uneditedA stored Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Esri Portal for ArcGIS may allow a remote, authenticated attacker to pass and store malicious strings via crafted queries which when accessed could potentially execute arbitrary JavaScript code in the user’s browser.
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 · moderate confidenceA stored Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Esri Portal for ArcGIS allows an authenticated remote attacker to inject malicious JavaScript strings via crafted queries. These malicious queries are stored on the server and execute arbitrary JavaScript in the browsers of users who later access them.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Esri Portal for ArcGIS installationCheck if Portal for ArcGIS is running by accessing the ArcGIS Portal Administrator Directory at https://[host]/arcgis/portal/admin or checking for the portal web application in your web server/IIS configurationAffected if The product is installed and accessible on the network
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Verify authenticated user access existsReview the Portal user directory and identify which users have permissions to create or modify stored queries. Check user roles in the Portal Security settingsAffected if There are authenticated users with query creation/modification privileges
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Inspect stored queries for malicious payloadsAccess the Portal REST API directory at https://[host]/arcgis/rest/services and review any stored query definitions. Look for script tags, javascript:, onerror, or other XSS vectors in query parametersAffected if Stored queries contain unsanitized script tags or JavaScript event handlers in parameter values
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Check browser execution of stored query URLsIf you have access to browser developer tools, navigate to pages that load stored queries and inspect the DOM for executed script tags or check the network requests for any injected JavaScriptAffected if Scripts execute when viewing pages that load the stored queries
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Review Portal logs for XSS injection attemptsCheck Esri Portal for ArcGIS logs in the Portal Administrator Directory under Logs for entries containing script tags, <script, or javascript: URI schemes in query parametersAffected if Logs show recent injection attempts or successful XSS payload storage
You are affected if Esri Portal for ArcGIS is running and any stored queries contain unsanitized JavaScript that executes when users access them.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataImplement proper input validation and output encoding for all query parameters in the Portal, and configure Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict script execution.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-38189 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-38189 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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