Threats / Fortra / CVE-2022-39197
CVE-2022-39197
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Fortra Cobalt Strike vulnerability
Fortra Cobalt Strike contains a cross-site scripting vulnerability in Teamserver that allows remote code execution through a malformed username in Beacon configuration.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An attacker can inject malicious scripts via a crafted username parameter in Cobalt Strike's Beacon configuration, leading to arbitrary code execution on the Teamserver. This vulnerability has been exploited in the wild.
CISA KEV Yes · 2023-03-304EPSS 0.46446 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 6.1 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: partial3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
2 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-03-30).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.46446 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 6.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) · Affected: Fortra, Cobalt Strike. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-20 Improper Input Validation, CWE-79 Cross-site Scripting (XSS) — weakness family: Web / client.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: partialCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 189 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malformed username containing XSS payload in the Beacon configuration.
Business
Attacker gains code execution capability on the Teamserver infrastructure.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I execute arbitrary commands through the injected script within the Teamserver context.
Business
Attacker compromises command and control operations, potentially affecting all connected Beacon instances.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I maintain persistence and lateral movement through the compromised Teamserver.
Business
Organization loses operational security of its entire attack infrastructure and faces potential data exfiltration.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05