CVE-2022-39197
Fortra Cobalt Strike · Security products
Fortra Cobalt Strike Teamserver Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerability
At a glance
Exploited. Added to CISA’s catalog of exploited vulnerabilities on March 30, 2023.
Affected product: Fortra Cobalt Strike (category Security products, indicative classification). Name in CISA’s catalog: Fortra Cobalt Strike.
What should I do?
Apply the security update from Fortra.
Deadline set by CISA for US federal agencies: 21 days (due April 20, 2023). It only binds those agencies, but it is a useful measure of urgency.
- Fortra security advisories page (general page, not the advisory for this vulnerability)
- The vendor’s specific advisory is listed in the NVD references: CVE-2022-39197 on the NVD website.
Original text of the required action (CISA)
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Timeline
- Vulnerability published Publication date (NVD)
- Exploitation confirmed Added to CISA’s KEV catalog
- CISA deadline Remediation deadline set for US federal agencies
The facts, with their sources
- Exploitation confirmed
- Yes, on March 30, 2023 Date added to the catalog of exploited vulnerabilities. Exploitation itself may have started earlier. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
- Ransomware
- No known use to date That does not guarantee it is not being used: the information is not public. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
- Hunt for compromise
- Not requested by CISA Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
- CISA required action
- Apply the security update from Fortra. Rewritten by this site from CISA’s original text. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
- CISA deadline
- April 20, 2023, 21 days Set for US federal agencies: a measure of urgency, not an obligation elsewhere. Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
- Vulnerability published
- September 22, 2022 Source: National Vulnerability Database (NVD), collected September 29, 2026 at 15:00 UTC
- Product according to CISA
- Fortra Cobalt Strike Filed by this site under “Security products” (indicative classification). Source: KEV catalog, collected September 29, 2026 at 14:57 UTC
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Technical detail of the score: attack vector, complexity, impact. Source: National Vulnerability Database (NVD), collected September 29, 2026 at 15:00 UTC
Severity and activity
FIRST’s EPSS model. Since exploitation is already confirmed, this figure is mostly useful to compare activity. Collected Sep 29, 2026.
Description
An XSS (Cross Site Scripting) vulnerability was found in HelpSystems Cobalt Strike through 4.7 that allowed a remote attacker to execute HTML on the Cobalt Strike teamserver. To exploit the vulnerability, one must first inspect a Cobalt Strike payload, and then modify the username field in the payload (or create a new payload with the extracted information and then modify that username field to be malformed).
Official description from the NVD, collected Sep 29, 2026. CVE® description © The MITRE Corporation.
Fortra Cobalt Strike contains a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Teamserver that would allow an attacker to set a malformed username in the Beacon configuration, allowing them to execute code remotely.
Summary from CISA (KEV catalog).
CERT-FR advisories
No advisory among the latest CERT-FR publications this site follows. That does not mean there are none.
Information reused under the Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab); the date of last update is shown for each advisory. This site is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by ANSSI.
Sources for this page
- CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, required action, deadline, ransomware.
- NVD (NIST): CVSS severity, publication date, description, vendor references.
- EPSS (FIRST): probability of exploitation.
- CERT-FR: advisories and alerts (in French).
- Brand and category: indicative classification by this site (method).