Executive brief
GeoNetwork is a catalog application used to manage and discover geospatial data resources. An unauthenticated attacker can upload arbitrary files (such as `.xsl` or `.zip` formatters) to the server through an unprotected API endpoint, gaining unauthorized write access to the GeoNetwork formatter directory. This could enable file system manipulation and potentially lead to further attacks on the application.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an authorization bypass (missing authentication/authorization checks) in the formatter file upload API endpoint. The vulnerable component is the formatter upload functionality, which accepts `.xsl` and `.zip` files without proper access control. An unauthenticated attacker can invoke this API endpoint over the network to write arbitrary files directly into the GeoNetwork formatter directory. While file upload alone constitutes unauthorized write access, combined with other vulnerabilities (such as CVE-2026-58400 for unsafe XSLT processing), it may enable remote code execution. The vulnerability is patched in GeoNetwork versions 4.4.12 and 4.2.17.
Affected products
- GeoNetwork GeoNetwork before 4.4.12 and 4.2.17
Timeline
- 2026-09-03: disclosed
- 2026-09-03: patched: Fixed in GeoNetwork 4.4.12 and 4.2.17