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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 20 Apr 2023.
Cobalt StrikeApplication · Helpsystems

CVE-2022-42948

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-03-24
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Cobalt Strike 4.7.1 fails to properly escape HTML tags when they are displayed on Swing components. By injecting crafted HTML code, it is possible to remotely execute code in the Cobalt Strike UI.

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

Cobalt Strike 4.7.1 contains an HTML injection vulnerability in its Swing UI components where HTML tags are not properly escaped before rendering. An attacker can inject malicious HTML/JavaScript code that executes within the context of the Cobalt Strike client application, leading to remote code execution on the operator's machine.

MitigationUpgrade Cobalt Strike to version 4.8 or later which contains the patched HTML escaping. If upgrading is not immediately possible, exercise extreme caution when opening or interacting with untrusted payloads, scripts, or data within the Cobalt Strike interface.

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
Cobalt StrikeApplication
Affected:= 4.7.1

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/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. Verify Cobalt Strike version
    Check the installed Cobalt Strike version by reviewing the 'cobaltstrike.auth' file or the teamserver banner on startup. In the Cobalt Strike client, go to Help > About to see the exact version number.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 4.7.1 (the only affected version per vendor advisory).
  2. Confirm Swing GUI is in use
    Determine if the Cobalt Strike client is running with its graphical Swing-based UI (the standard GUI launcher) rather than in headless or script-only mode. The vulnerability exists in the Swing UI components.
    Affected if The graphical Swing UI is active and user-interactive fields accept input that gets rendered in the UI.
  3. Review UI-rendered content for injection
    Inspect any logs, reports, or UI panels where external data (such as beacon metadata, target names, or notes) gets displayed. Look for unescaped HTML tags appearing in the rendered view.
    Affected if HTML tags from external or user-supplied input appear rendered (visible as formatted HTML) rather than displayed as raw text.
  4. Check for suspicious UI behavior
    Review Cobalt Strike client logs and any crash/error logs for indicators of malformed HTML processing or unexpected script execution triggered through UI fields.
    Affected if Logs show unexpected rendering behavior, script execution attempts, or errors related to HTML content in UI fields.

A user is affected if they are running exactly Cobalt Strike version 4.7.1 and using its graphical Swing UI where external data gets displayed in UI fields without proper HTML escaping.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Cobalt Strike to version 4.8 or later which contains the patched HTML escaping. If upgrading is not immediately possible, exercise extreme caution when opening or interacting with untrusted payloads, scripts, or data within the Cobalt Strike interface.

Recommended fix High confidence

Cobalt Strike 4.7.2 or later

  1. Download Cobalt Strike 4.7.2 or later from the official vendor website (help.cobaltstrike.com) or your licensed portal
  2. Back up your existing Cobalt Strike team server and client configurations
  3. Update the Cobalt Strike client by navigating to Help > Check for Updates or by downloading the new installer
  4. Update the team server component to the same version
  5. Restart all Cobalt Strike services and reconnect clients
  6. Verify the update by checking the version number in the Cobalt Strike UI (Help > About)
Caveat As a minor version patch, 4.7.2 should maintain compatibility with existing beacon configurations; however, always test in a lab environment before deploying to production team servers

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

Fix this in Cobalt Strike Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-2022-42948 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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