A critical, unauthenticated remote-code-execution vulnerability in Orkes Conductor is being exploited in attacks. Tracked as CVE-2026-58138 and rated 9.8 on the CVSS scale, the flaw affects the open-source framework used to orchestrate microservices, workflows and AI agents. It can be triggered through inline workflow definitions submitted to the workflow API.
An attacker can place malicious JavaScript or Python expressions in workflow tasks, which Conductor evaluates in a GraalVM context configured with `HostAccess.ALL`. According to Empirical Security, this disables the sandbox and allows the code to access the Java runtime and execute operating-system commands as the Conductor process, which often runs with root privileges.
The server does not enforce authentication by default, leaving the workflow API exposed unless administrators secure it. A single unauthenticated POST can register and start a workflow containing a hostile task. The vulnerability was fixed in June in Conductor 3.30.2. Proof-of-concept code appeared in early August, with exploitation reported soon afterwards: Empirical identified attacks in the wild on 21 August, while Fortinet said it blocked roughly 1,300 exploitation attempts between 8 and 9 September.
Fortinet has since issued an alert about continuing exploitation. Organisations should upgrade to Conductor 3.30.2 or later, restrict external access to workflow API endpoints, place deployments behind a firewall and check vulnerable systems for suspicious workflow submissions or unauthorised command execution.