CVE-2022-42948 (GCVE-0-2022-42948)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2023-03-24 00:00 – Updated: 2025-10-21 23:15Summary
Cobalt Strike 4.7.1 fails to properly escape HTML tags when they are displayed on Swing components. By injecting crafted HTML code, it is possible to remotely execute code in the Cobalt Strike UI.
Severity
9.8 (Critical)
SSVC
Exploitation: active
Automatable: yes
Technical Impact: total
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2025-01-28 21:13 UTC
CWE
- n/a
- CWE-116 - Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output
Assigner
References
CISA
Known Exploited Vulnerability - GCVE BCP-07 Compliant
KEV entry ID: 6c51b343-6c7d-4b70-babe-8606c243d2c3
Exploited: Yes
Timestamps
First Seen: 2023-03-30
Asserted: 2023-03-30
Scope
Notes: KEV entry: Fortra Cobalt Strike User Interface Remote Code Execution Vulnerability | Affected: Fortra / Cobalt Strike | Description: Fortra Cobalt Strike User Interface contains an unspecified vulnerability rooted in Java Swing that may allow remote code execution. | Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions. | Due date: 2023-04-20 | Known ransomware campaign use (KEV): Unknown | Notes (KEV): https://www.cobaltstrike.com/blog/out-of-band-update-cobalt-strike-4-7-2/; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42948
Evidence
Type: Vendor Report
Signal: Successful Exploitation
Confidence: 80%
Source: cisa-kev
Details
| Cwes | CWE-79 CWE-116 |
|---|---|
| Feed | CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog |
| Product | Cobalt Strike |
| Due Date | 2023-04-20 |
| Date Added | 2023-03-30 |
| Vendorproject | Fortra |
| Vulnerabilityname | Fortra Cobalt Strike User Interface Remote Code Execution Vulnerability |
| Knownransomwarecampaignuse | Unknown |
References
Created: 2026-02-02 12:27 UTC
| Updated: 2026-02-06 07:17 UTC
Previdian
Known Exploited Vulnerability - GCVE BCP-07 Compliant
KEV entry ID: 39944bbc-76ca-4f2e-9da4-e25786bb300e
Exploited: Yes
Timestamps
First Seen: 2023-03-30
Asserted: 2023-03-30
Scope
Notes: KEVIntel entry: Cobalt Strike 4.7.1 fails to properly escape HTML tags when they are displayed on Swing components. By injecting crafted HTML code, it is possible... | Affected: HelpSystems / Cobalt Strike | CVSS: 9.8 (CRITICAL) | Used in malware: unknown | Not yet in CISA KEV: False
Evidence
Type: Public Report
Signal: Successful Exploitation
Confidence: 70%
Source: kevintel
Details
| Feed | KEVIntel (kevintel.com) |
|---|---|
| Title | Cobalt Strike 4.7.1 fails to properly escape HTML tags when they are displayed on Swing components. By injecting crafted HTML code, it is possible... |
| Vendor | HelpSystems |
| Product | Cobalt Strike |
| Added Date | 2023-03-30T00:00:00.000Z |
| Cvss Score | 9.8 |
| Epss Score | None |
| Cvss Severity | CRITICAL |
| Epss Percentile | None |
| Used In Malware | unknown |
| Ahead Of Cisa Kev | None |
| Not Yet In Cisa Kev | False |
References
Created: 2026-06-23 14:05 UTC
| Updated: 2026-07-10 06:14 UTC
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Experimental. This forecast is provided for visualization only and may change without notice. Do not use it for operational decisions.
Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
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The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the
vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base
model, served locally by ML-Gateway.
They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
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Related by attack behaviour
Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.
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