CVE-2017-17562: Embedthis GoAhead Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

Name

Embedthis GoAhead Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Vendor

Embedthis

Product

GoAhead

Added to the catalog

2021-12-10

Due date for US federal agencies

2022-06-10

Weaknesses

CWE-20

Catalog version

2026.10.30

Embedthis GoAhead before 3.6.5 allows remote code execution if CGI is enabled and a CGI program is dynamically linked.

Required action (CISA)

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Ransomware use: CISA does not mark known use of this vulnerability in ransomware campaigns.

Links in CISA's notes

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-17562

Read on 2026-11-02T23:39:54.475Z under licence cisa-kev-cc0@b0067899 from https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/feeds/known_exploited_vulnerabilities.json

NVD analysis

Status

Analyzed

Published

2017-12-12T19:29:00.207

Last modified

2026-06-17T01:11:15.933

Weaknesses

NVD-CWE-noinfo

Embedthis GoAhead before 3.6.5 allows remote code execution if CGI is enabled and a CGI program is dynamically linked. This is a result of initializing the environment of forked CGI scripts using untrusted HTTP request parameters in the cgiHandler function in cgi.c. When combined with the glibc dynamic linker, this behaviour can be abused for remote code execution using special parameter names such as LD_PRELOAD. An attacker can POST their shared object payload in the body of the request, and reference it using /proc/self/fd/0.

References

• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpuapr2018-3678067.html (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040702 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://github.com/elttam/advisories/tree/master/CVE-2017-17562 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory)
• https://github.com/embedthis/goahead/commit/6f786c123196eb622625a920d54048629a7caa74 (Broken Link, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
• https://github.com/embedthis/goahead/issues/249 (Broken Link, Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory)
• https://www.elttam.com.au/blog/goahead/ (Broken Link, Exploit, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/43360/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/43877/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpuapr2018-3678067.html (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1040702 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://github.com/elttam/advisories/tree/master/CVE-2017-17562 (Broken Link, Third Party Advisory)
• https://github.com/embedthis/goahead/commit/6f786c123196eb622625a920d54048629a7caa74 (Broken Link, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
• https://github.com/embedthis/goahead/issues/249 (Broken Link, Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory)
• https://www.elttam.com.au/blog/goahead/ (Broken Link, Exploit, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/43360/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/43877/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry)
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2017-17562 (US Government Resource)

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Read on 2026-11-02T23:41:35.381Z under licence nvd-api-terms-of-use@ff2a5288 from https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/2.0?cveId=CVE-2017-17562

CVE record

Assigner

mitre

State

PUBLISHED

Published

2017-12-12T19:00:00.000Z

Updated

2025-10-21T23:45:57.300Z

Problem types

n/a

Embedthis GoAhead before 3.6.5 allows remote code execution if CGI is enabled and a CGI program is dynamically linked. This is a result of initializing the environment of forked CGI scripts using untrusted HTTP request parameters in the cgiHandler function in cgi.c. When combined with the glibc dynamic linker, this behaviour can be abused for remote code execution using special parameter names such as LD_PRELOAD. An attacker can POST their shared object payload in the body of the request, and reference it using /proc/self/fd/0.

References

• https://github.com/elttam/advisories/tree/master/CVE-2017-17562
• 1040702
• https://www.elttam.com.au/blog/goahead/
• 43360
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/security-advisory/cpuapr2018-3678067.html
• https://github.com/embedthis/goahead/commit/6f786c123196eb622625a920d54048629a7caa74
• https://github.com/embedthis/goahead/issues/249
• 43877

Read on 2026-11-03T00:35:03.972Z under licence cve-terms-of-use@81bfa2f3 from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/main/cves/2017/17xxx/CVE-2017-17562.json