CVE-2022-36446
Published: 25 July 2022
Summary
CVE-2022-36446 is a critical-severity Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output (CWE-116) vulnerability in Webmin Webmin. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis
Webmin versions prior to 1.997 contain a command injection vulnerability in software/apt-lib.pl that stems from missing HTML escaping on a UI command. The flaw is tracked as CWE-116 and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8, reflecting network-accessible attack vectors that require no authentication or user interaction.
Unauthenticated remote attackers can supply crafted input to the affected package-update functionality, resulting in arbitrary command execution on the underlying system with full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. Public exploit code demonstrates both remote code execution and package-updates command injection against version 1.996.
The referenced GitHub commit and version diff show that the issue was resolved by adding proper output encoding in the 1.997 release. Administrators should upgrade to Webmin 1.997 or later to eliminate the vulnerable code path.
EPSS values remain elevated, with a current score of 0.9293 and a recorded peak of 0.9708, consistent with the availability of working proof-of-concept exploits shortly after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-39156
Vulnerability details
software/apt-lib.pl in Webmin before 1.997 lacks HTML escaping for a UI command.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Validating that output matches expected content directly mitigates failures to properly encode or escape data for its destination context.