CVE-2020-35239 — cakephp/cakephp
HIGHCVE-2020-35239 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in cakephp/cakephp. A fix is available for cakephp/cakephp — see the affected versions and patch details below.
CakePHP allows method override parameters to bypass CSRF checks
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-2020-35239 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 377,166 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
cakephp/cakephp🐘cakephp/cakephpReal-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
A vulnerability exists in CakePHP versions 4.0.x through 4.1.3. The CsrfProtectionMiddleware component allows method override parameters to bypass CSRF checks by changing the HTTP request method to an arbitrary string that is not in the list of request methods that CakePHP checks. Additionally, the route middleware does not verify that this overriden method (which can be an arbitrary string) is actually an HTTP method.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/cakephp | ≥ 4.0.0&&< 4.0.10 | 4.0.10composer require cakephp/cakephp:^4.0.10 |
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/cakephp | ≥ 4.1.0&&< 4.1.4 | 4.1.4composer require cakephp/cakephp:^4.1.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cakephp/cakephp, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cakephp/cakephp to 4.0.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-35239 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-2020-35239 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2020-35239. 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-2020-35239 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2020-35239 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.