CVE-2019-15954 — total4
CRITICALCVE-2019-15954 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) CWE-862 vulnerability in total4. 5 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Total.js CMS RCE Vulnerability
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-2019-15954 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE sits: patch-first territory.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
total4npmDescription
An issue was discovered in Total.js CMS 12.0.0. An authenticated user with the widgets privilege can gain achieve Remote Command Execution (RCE) on the remote server by creating a malicious widget with a special tag containing JavaScript code that will be evaluated server side. In the process of evaluating the tag by the back-end, it is possible to escape the sandbox object by using the following payload: <script total>global.process.mainModule.require(child_process).exec(RCE);</script>
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | total4 | all versions | No fix |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Total.js CMS 12 - Widget JavaScript Code Injection (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Oct 22, 2019
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for total4, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of total4 has shipped for CVE-2019-15954 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-2019-15954 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2019-15954. 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-2019-15954 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2019-15954 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.