CVE-2017-17562: Embedthis GoAhead Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
- Is it exploited?
Yes. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 10 Dec 2021, 1,459 days after the CVE record was published.
- How likely is exploitation in the next 30 days?
- 97.1%
EPSS score, percentile 99.9 of all scored records
- How severe?
- 8.1 High
CVSS v3.1 base score, from CISA's enrichment of the record
- What should I do?
CISA deadline 10 Jun 2022. Apply updates per vendor instructions.
The CVE record links no vendor advisory, patch or mitigation.
- Which versions are affected?
Not stated. The CVE record gives vendor and product as “n/a” and the version as “unspecified”.
Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of 28 Oct 2026; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of 28 Oct 2026; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.
What to do
Required action, set by CISA
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
CISA due date for this action: 10 June 2022.
Advisories and patches
The CVE record links no vendor advisory, patch or mitigation.
Linked from CISA's catalog entry
Affected products and versions
The CVE record does not name affected products or versions: vendor and product are “n/a” and the version is “unspecified”.
Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.
About this vulnerability
Embedthis GoAhead before 3.6.5 allows remote code execution if CGI is enabled and a CGI program is dynamically linked.
Summary: CISA's KEV catalog, as of 28 Oct 2026.
- CISA added CVE-2017-17562 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 10 Dec 2021.
- CISA's ransomware flag for this entry is "Unknown": no evidence of ransomware use in the catalog, which is not proof of none.
- The due date CISA sets for the required action is 10 Jun 2022.
- The CVE record was published on 12 Dec 2017, 1,459 days before it was added to KEV.
- The CVE record carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (High), taken from CISA's enrichment of the record.
- FIRST's EPSS model puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 97.1% (percentile 99.9), as of 28 Oct 2026.
- CISA's SSVC assessment in the CVE record: exploitation active, automatable no, technical impact total.
Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of 28 Oct 2026; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.
Description
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.
Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.
Weakness
CWE and CAPEC are maintained by MITRE; the entries are those named in the CVE record and the KEV entry.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 12 Dec 2017 | CVE record published |
| 10 Dec 2021 | Added to CISA KEV |
| 10 Jun 2022 | CISA due date for the required action |
| 21 Oct 2025 | CVE record last updated |