CVE-2022-23470 | Arbitrary file access in the Galaxy data analysis platform

Galaxy is an open-source platform for data analysis. An arbitrary file read exists in Galaxy 22.01 and Galaxy 22.05 due to the switch to Gunicorn, which can be used to read any file accessible to the operating system user under which Galaxy is running. This vulnerability affects Galaxy 22.01 and higher, after the switch to gunicorn, which serve static contents directly. Additionally, the vulnerability is mitigated when using Nginx or Apache to serve /static/* contents, instead of Galaxy's internal middleware. This issue has been patched in commit `e5e6bda4f` and will be included in future releases. Users are advised to manually patch their installations. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Published: 2022-12-06 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-23470 is rated Moderate Risk (56.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.44%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-23470

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-12-13 0.34% 0.44% +0.10%
2 2025-12-09 0.12% 0.34% +0.22%
3 2025-11-21 0.12%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-23470

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 4.0 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-23470

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-23470

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
galaxyproject galaxy >= 22.01, <= 22.05 cpe:2.3:a:galaxyproject:galaxy:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-23470

cvelogic Threat Intelligence