Critical Orkes Conductor Flaw Lets Attackers Run Commands Without Login

A critical, unauthenticated remote-code-execution vulnerability in Orkes Conductor is being exploited in attacks. Tracked as CVE-2026-58138 and rated 9.8 (critical) by CVSS, the flaw affects the open-source framework used to orchestrate microservices, workflows and AI agents. It is triggered through inline workflow definitions submitted to the workflow API: an attacker can insert malicious JavaScript or Python expressions into tasks and use them to run arbitrary system commands.

Empirical Security said Conductor creates its evaluator in a GraalVM context configured with `HostAccess.ALL`, effectively disabling the sandbox and allowing attacker-controlled code to reach the Java runtime. Commands then run with the privileges of the Conductor process, which the researchers said often operates as root. Authentication is not enabled by default, leaving the workflow API exposed; a single unauthenticated POST can register and start a malicious workflow.

The issue was fixed in Conductor 3.30.2 in June. Proof-of-concept exploit code appeared in early August, with exploitation reported shortly afterwards. Empirical identified attacks in the wild on 21 August, while Fortinet said it blocked about 1,300 exploitation attempts between 8 and 9 September and has issued an alert about continuing exploitation. Organisations should upgrade to version 3.30.2 or later, restrict external access to workflow API endpoints and place deployments behind a firewall. They should also examine vulnerable systems for suspicious workflow submissions and unauthorised command execution.