How severe is CVE-2021-32648?

CVE-2021-32648 has a CVSS score of 9.1/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2021-32648?

CVE-2021-32648 affects the following packages: october/system (Packagist), october/system (Packagist). Ecosystems affected: Packagist.

How do I fix CVE-2021-32648?

Update october/system to 1.0.472 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-32648 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2021-32648 in my Packagist dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for october/system, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2021-32648 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

Is CVE-2021-32648 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 5 known exploit references for CVE-2021-32648, including 4 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2021-32648?

CVE-2021-32648 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 90.4%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2021-32648 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2021-32648 (October CMS Improper Authentication) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2022-01-18. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-02-01. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2021-32648?

CVE-2021-32648 is classified as Improper Authentication (CWE-287). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2021-32648?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2021-32648, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2021-32648 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2021-32648 was published on August 26, 2021 and was last updated on October 20, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐘

🐘 Packagist

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2021-32648 — system

CRITICALFix: octobercms/library@016a297

CVE-2021-32648 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) Improper Authentication vulnerability in october/system. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-01-18) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for october/system — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Account Takeover in Octobercms

Also known asGHSA-mxr5-mc97-63rc

Published

Aug 26, 2021

Updated

Oct 20, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

5 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-01-18. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-02-01.
CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2021-32648.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

90.4%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs100th percentile — riskier than 100% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2021-32648 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected

🐘october/system🐘october/system

Real-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

Impact

An attacker can request an account password reset and then gain access to the account using a specially crafted request.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must know the username of an administrator and have access to the password reset form.

Patches

Issue has been patched in Build 472 and v1.1.5
Shortened patch instructions

Workarounds

Apply https://github.com/octobercms/library/commit/016a297b1bec55d2e53bc889458ed2cb5c3e9374 and https://github.com/octobercms/library/commit/5bd1a28140b825baebe6becd4f7562299d3de3b9 to your installation manually if you are unable to upgrade.

[Update 2022-01-20] Shortened patch instructions can be found here.

Recommendations

We recommend the following steps to make sure your server stays secure:

Keep server OS and system software up to date.
Keep October CMS software up to date.
Use a multi-factor authentication plugin.
Change the default backend URL or block public access to the backend area.
Include the Roave/SecurityAdvisories Composer package to ensure that your application doesn't have installed dependencies with known security vulnerabilities.

References

Bugs found as part of Solar Security CMS Research. Credits to: • Andrey Basarygin • Andrey Guzei • Mikhail Khramenkov • Alexander Sidukov • Maxim Teplykh

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Email us at [email protected]

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐘Packagist	`october/system`	all versions	1.0.472`composer require october/system:^1.0.472`
🐘Packagist	`october/system`	≥ 1.1.1&&< 1.1.5	1.1.5`composer require october/system:^1.1.5`

Affected Products

1 product · 2 configurations

Application

octoberoctobercms

≥ 1.1.1 && < 1.1.5

1 version

1.0.471

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

octobercms in a CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. In affe…

github.comGithubJan 2022

octobercms in a CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. In affe…

github.comAPIJan 2022

octobercms in a CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. In affe…

twitter.comAPIJan 2022

octobercms in a CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. In affe…

cisa.govCISAJan 2022

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for october/system, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update october/system to 1.0.472 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-32648 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

How to detect CVE-2021-32648

A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:

nuclei -id cve-2021-32648 -u https://target

Template: OctoberCMS - Account Takeover
Severity: high
Impact: Unauthenticated attackers can request password resets and gain unauthorized access to user accounts including administrator accounts using a specially crafted request.
Remediation: Upgrade to October CMS Build 472 or v1.1.5 or later.

Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (daffainfo), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact An attacker can request an account password reset and then gain access to the account using a specially crafted request. - To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must know the username of an administrator and have access to the password reset form. ### Patches - Issue has been patched in Build 472 and v1.1.5 - [Shortened patch instructions](https://github.com/daftspunk/CVE-2021-32648) ### Workarounds Apply https://github.com/octobercms/library/commit/016a297b1bec55d2e53bc889458ed2cb5c3e9374 and https://github.com/octobercms/library/commit/5bd1a28140b825baebe6becd4f7562299d