CVE-2022-41955: Autolab is vulnerable to remote code execution (RCE) via MOSS functionality

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-01-14 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-78

Description

Autolab is a course management service, initially developed by a team of students at Carnegie Mellon University, that enables instructors to offer autograded programming assignments to their students over the Web. A remote code execution vulnerability was discovered in Autolab's MOSS functionality, whereby an instructor with access to the feature might be able to execute code on the server hosting Autolab. This vulnerability has been patched in version 2.10.0. As a workaround, disable the MOSS feature if it is unneeded by replacing the body of `run_moss` in `app/controllers/courses_controller.rb` with `render(plain: "Feature disabled", status: :bad_request) && return`.

Affected products

Autolab: from 2.0.2 before 2.10.0 — fixed in 2.10.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Autolab 2.10.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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