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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2022-46169 kev in the critical feed json

Unauthenticated Command Injection

published 2022-12-05 3 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2022-48996

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2023-02-16
epss
99.8%
EPSS 99.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.9%
public exploits
2
Metasploit, Exploit-DB, plus a Nuclei check

Summary

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, 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.

Patch / fix

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

  • Cacti cacti 1.2.23
  • cacti Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.2.22+ds1-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2022-46169

  • cacti Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 1.1.38+ds1-1ubuntu0.1~esm4
  • cacti Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 1.2.10+ds1-1ubuntu1.1+esm2
  • cacti Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS 1.2.19+ds1-2ubuntu1.1+esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2022-46169

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • cacti openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.2.23-1.1
  • cacti-spine Package Hub 15 SP4, Package Hub 12, openSUSE Leap 15.4 1.2.23-bp154.2.6.1
  • cacti Package Hub 15 SP4, Package Hub 12, openSUSE Leap 15.4 1.2.23-bp154.2.6.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:12593-1openSUSE-SU-2023:0025-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2022-46169 updated cvss 9.8

cacti: unauthenticated command injection

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/linux/http/cacti_unauthenticated_cmd_injection)
  2. Published
  3. Added to CISA KEV
  4. CISA patch deadline
  5. CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Known exploited

Added
3 y ago
Patch by
2023-03-09 (3 y ago)
Ransomware
Not known
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vendor, product
Cacti, Cacti
CISA name
Cacti Command Injection Vulnerability

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

99.83% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Cacti cacti

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-74 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component
  • CWE-78 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command
  • CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.