CVE-2022-51024 Kareadita CVE debrief

Who should care

Defenders responsible for Kavita instances, especially those with publicly accessible cover-upload endpoints, should assess exposure and prioritize verification and remediation. They should also review vendor-supported updates or mitigations through normal change control where exposure is confirmed and track exceptions, retest remediated assets, and close the item only after evidence is documented.

Why it matters

The CVE-2022-51024 vulnerability in Kavita allows unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files, posing a significant risk to defenders who should prioritize verification, remediation, and compensating controls.

• Verify exposure of Kavita instances to unauthenticated path traversal
• Assess effectiveness of existing monitoring and incident response processes
• Implement compensating controls to restrict access to the cover-upload endpoint
• Update to version 0.5.4.1 or later to remediate the vulnerability

Technical summary

Kavita 0.5.2 before 0.5.4.1 contains a path traversal vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files by supplying '../' sequences in the filename parameter of the cover-upload endpoint. The vulnerability affects Kavita instances, especially those with publicly accessible cover-upload endpoints. Defenders should prioritize verifying exposure of Kavita instances and assess the effectiveness of existing monitoring and incident response processes. Evidence of exploitation was first observed by the Shadowserver Foundation on 2023-10-18.

Defensive priority

Defenders should prioritize verifying exposure of Kavita instances, especially those with publicly accessible cover-upload endpoints, and assess the effectiveness of existing monitoring and incident response processes.

Recommended defensive actions

• Verify exposure of Kavita instances, especially those with publicly accessible cover-upload endpoints
• Assess the effectiveness of existing monitoring and incident response processes
• Implement compensating controls, such as restricting access to the cover-upload endpoint
• Monitor for suspicious activity and update to version 0.5.4.1 or later
• Review vendor-supported updates or mitigations through normal change control where exposure is confirmed
• Check relevant monitoring, detection, and logs for exposed assets that need extra review
• Track exceptions, retest remediated assets, and close the item only after evidence is documented.

Evidence notes

The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files by supplying '../' sequences in the filename parameter of the cover-upload endpoint. Evidence of exploitation was first observed by the Shadowserver Foundation on 2023-10-18.

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.