CVE-2017-16244 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in october/october. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for october/october — see the affected versions and patch details below.
October CMS CSRF
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2017-16244 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 376,715 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
october/octoberReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Cross-Site Request Forgery exists in OctoberCMS 1.0.426 (aka Build 426) due to improper validation of CSRF tokens for postback handling, allowing an attacker to successfully take over the victim's account. The attack bypasses a protection mechanism involving X-CSRF headers and CSRF tokens via a certain _handler postback variable.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | october/october | all versions | 1.0.427composer require october/october:^1.0.427 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
OctoberCMS 1.0.426 (Build 426) - Cross-Site Request Forgery
by Zain Sabahat · Nov 1, 2017
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for october/october, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update october/october to 1.0.427 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2017-16244 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2017-16244 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2017-16244. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2017-16244 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2017-16244 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.