Cyber Resilience

CVE-2022-46169

CriticalCISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCRCE

Published: 05 December 2022

Published
05 December 2022
Modified
24 October 2025
KEV Added
16 February 2023
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.9447 100.0th percentile
Risk Priority 96 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2022-46169 is a critical-severity Injection (CWE-74) vulnerability in Cacti Cacti. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).

Deeper analysis

Cacti is an open source operational monitoring platform that contains a command injection vulnerability in the remote_agent.php file, which is reachable without authentication. The flaw stems from improper handling in get_client_addr within lib/functions.php, where HTTP_ prefixed $_SERVER variables can be attacker-controlled, combined with a subsequent gethostbyaddr check against the poller table that contains a default entry for the Cacti server hostname itself. Once authorization is obtained, the polldata action invokes poll_for_data and ultimately proc_open with an attacker-supplied poller_id parameter, enabling arbitrary command execution when a poller_item configured for POLLER_ACTION_SCRIPT_PHP exists.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the issue by supplying a Forwarded-For header that matches the Cacti server's IP address, thereby satisfying the poller hostname check. The attacker then supplies host_id and local_data_id values (obtainable via brute force on a typical installation that uses standard templates) along with a poller_id containing shell metacharacters, resulting in full command execution on the server with the privileges of the Cacti process.

The vulnerability was addressed in Cacti 1.2.23 by preventing get_client_addr from honoring untrusted HTTP_ headers or returning the server's own address. Corresponding fixes appear in both the 1.2.x and 1.3.x branches, and the project advisory together with the referenced commits detail the changes required to restore proper client IP validation.

The CVE carries a CVSS score of 9.8 and an EPSS score that has reached 0.9741, indicating sustained exploitation interest after disclosure.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Cacti is an open source platform which provides a robust and extensible operational monitoring and fault management framework for users. In affected versions a command injection vulnerability allows an unauthenticated user to execute arbitrary code on a server running Cacti,…

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if a specific data source was selected for any monitored device. The vulnerability resides in the `remote_agent.php` file. This file can be accessed without authentication. This function retrieves the IP address of the client via `get_client_addr` and resolves this IP address to the corresponding hostname via `gethostbyaddr`. After this, it is verified that an entry within the `poller` table exists, where the hostname corresponds to the resolved hostname. If such an entry was found, the function returns `true` and the client is authorized. This authorization can be bypassed due to the implementation of the `get_client_addr` function. The function is defined in the file `lib/functions.php` and checks serval `$_SERVER` variables to determine the IP address of the client. The variables beginning with `HTTP_` can be arbitrarily set by an attacker. Since there is a default entry in the `poller` table with the hostname of the server running Cacti, an attacker can bypass the authentication e.g. by providing the header `Forwarded-For: <TARGETIP>`. This way the function `get_client_addr` returns the IP address of the server running Cacti. The following call to `gethostbyaddr` will resolve this IP address to the hostname of the server, which will pass the `poller` hostname check because of the default entry. After the authorization of the `remote_agent.php` file is bypassed, an attacker can trigger different actions. One of these actions is called `polldata`. The called function `poll_for_data` retrieves a few request parameters and loads the corresponding `poller_item` entries from the database. If the `action` of a `poller_item` equals `POLLER_ACTION_SCRIPT_PHP`, the function `proc_open` is used to execute a PHP script. The attacker-controlled parameter `$poller_id` is retrieved via the function `get_nfilter_request_var`, which allows arbitrary strings. This variable is later inserted into the string passed to `proc_open`, which leads to a command injection vulnerability. By e.g. providing the `poller_id=;id` the `id` command is executed. In order to reach the vulnerable call, the attacker must provide a `host_id` and `local_data_id`, where the `action` of the corresponding `poller_item` is set to `POLLER_ACTION_SCRIPT_PHP`. Both of these ids (`host_id` and `local_data_id`) can easily be bruteforced. The only requirement is that a `poller_item` with an `POLLER_ACTION_SCRIPT_PHP` action exists. This is very likely on a productive instance because this action is added by some predefined templates like `Device - Uptime` or `Device - Polling Time`. This command injection vulnerability allows an unauthenticated user to execute arbitrary commands if a `poller_item` with the `action` type `POLLER_ACTION_SCRIPT_PHP` (`2`) is configured. The authorization bypass should be prevented by not allowing an attacker to make `get_client_addr` (file `lib/functions.php`) return an arbitrary IP address. This could be done by not honoring the `HTTP_...` `$_SERVER` variables. If these should be kept for compatibility reasons it should at least be prevented to fake the IP address of the server running Cacti. This vulnerability has been addressed in both the 1.2.x and 1.3.x release branches with `1.2.23` being the first release containing the patch.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
16 February 2023

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

cacti
cacti
≤ 1.2.23

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly enforces the authorization check in remote_agent.php that the CVE bypasses via spoofed headers, blocking unauthenticated command execution.

prevent

Requires validation of all HTTP_* $_SERVER variables and derived client IP values before gethostbyaddr/poller lookup, eliminating the spoofing vector used in the attack.

prevent

Restricts the poller table default entry and polldata action privileges so that even a bypassed auth check cannot invoke proc_open with attacker-supplied parameters.

References