GHSA-x684-96hh-833x CVE-2025-23209
Craft CMS has a potential RCE with a compromised security key
High
Known exploited
Packagist
- Severity
- 8.0 / 10
- High · CVSS 3.1
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 21.64%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 97.63% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- Yes
- In CISA's catalog since Feb 20, 2025
- Weakness
- CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- Fix
5.5.5- Upgrade craftcms/cms to this version or later
Exploited in the wild. Craft CMS Code Injection Vulnerability (Craft CMS Craft CMS). Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Due for U.S. federal agencies by Mar 13, 2025.
Description
Impact
This is an RCE vulnerability that affects Craft 4 and 5 installs where your security key has already been compromised.
https://craftcms.com/knowledge-base/securing-craft#keep-your-secrets-secret
Anyone running an unpatched version of Craft with a compromised security key is affected.
Patches
This has been patched in Craft 5.5.8 and 4.13.8.
Workarounds
If you can't update to a patched version, then rotating your security key and ensuring its privacy will help to migitgate the issue.
References
https://github.com/craftcms/cms/commit/e59e22b30c9dd39e5e2c7fe02c147bcbd004e603
Affected versions
Packagist
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| craftcms/cms | >= 5.0.0-RC1, < 5.5.5 |
5.5.5 |
| craftcms/cms | >= 4.0.0-RC1, < 4.13.8 |
4.13.8 |
| craftcms/cms | >= 5.0.0-RC1, < 5.5.8 |
5.5.8 |
| craftcms/cms | >= 4.0.0-RC1, < 4.13.8 |
4.13.8 |
How to fix
Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.
craftcms/cms Packagist → 5.5.5
- composer
composer require craftcms/cms:^5.5.5
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.1 8.0
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:H
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- High
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
- Exploit maturity
- H
Weakness
CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment.
How to prevent it
- Architecture and Design: Refactor your program so that you do not have to dynamically generate code.
- Architecture and Design: Run your code in a "jail" or similar sandbox environment that enforces strict boundaries between the process and the operating system. This may effectively restrict which code can be executed by your product. Examples include the Unix chroot jail and AppArmor. In general, managed code may provide some protection. This may not be a feasible solution, and it only limits the impact to the operating system; the rest of your application may still be subject to compromise. Be careful to avoid CWE-243 and other weaknesses related to jails.
- Implementation: Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does. When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, "boat" may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as "red" or "blue." Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code's environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright. To reduce the likelihood of code injection, use stringent allowlists that limit which constructs are allowed. If you are dynamically constructing code that invokes a function, then verifying that the input is alphanumeric might be insufficient. An attacker might still be able to reference a dangerous function that you did not intend to allow, such as system(), exec(), or exit().
- Testing: Use dynamic tools and techniques that interact with the product using large test suites with many diverse inputs, such as fuzz testing (fuzzing), robustness testing, and fault injection. The product's operation may slow down, but it should not become unstable, crash, or generate incorrect results.
- Operation: Run the code in an environment that performs automatic taint propagation and prevents any command execution that uses tainted variables, such as Perl's "-T" switch. This will force the program to perform validation steps that remove the taint, although you must be careful to correctly validate your inputs so that you do not accidentally mark dangerous inputs as untainted (see CWE-183 and CWE-184).
- Operation: Run the code in an environment that performs automatic taint propagation and prevents any command execution that uses tainted variables, such as Perl's "-T" switch. This will force the program to perform validation steps that remove the taint, although you must be careful to correctly validate your inputs so that you do not accidentally mark dangerous inputs as untainted (see CWE-183 and CWE-184).
- Implementation: For Python programs, it is frequently encouraged to use the ast.literal_eval() function instead of eval, since it is intentionally designed to avoid executing code. However, an adversary could still cause excessive memory or stack consumption via deeply nested structures [REF-1372], so the python documentation discourages use of ast.literal_eval() on untrusted data [REF-1373].
References
Advisories
Fixes and patches
Packages
Other links
Timeline
- Published
- Added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- Remediation due for U.S. federal agencies
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| GHSA-7vrx-9684-xrf2 Craft CMS stores arbitrary content provided by unauthenticated users in session files | Medium Known exploited | Also affects craftcms/cms |
| GHSA-f3gw-9ww9-jmc3 Craft CMS Allows Remote Code Execution | Critical Known exploited | Also affects craftcms/cms |
| GHSA-2p6p-9rc9-62j9 Craft CMS has potential RCE when PHP `register_argc_argv` config setting is enabled | Critical Known exploited | Also affects craftcms/cms |
| GHSA-wg23-69c2-gjc8 Craft CMS: Passkey login accepts replayed WebAuthn assertions | Medium | Also affects craftcms/cms |
| GHSA-957r-qf9p-67xw Craft CMS: Arbitrary file read via SplFileObject in non-sandboxed template contexts | Medium | Also affects craftcms/cms |
| GHSA-596p-6jv8-775v Craft CMS: Authenticated leak of secret environment variables | Medium | Also affects craftcms/cms |
| GHSA-xxpx-f366-4xpq Craft CMS: Authorization bypass: view-only Categories user can modify category structure via structures/move-element | Medium | Also affects craftcms/cms |
| GHSA-7hxc-f267-h5q7 Craft CMS: Incorrect path validation could potentially lead to path traversal | Medium | Also affects craftcms/cms |
MergeHarbor checks every repository's dependencies against this database, ranks what matters by exploitability and reachability, routes it to the owning team and opens the fix pull request.
Check your repos with MergeHarbor