CVE-2022-25277 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.2) Unrestricted File Upload vulnerability in drupal/core. A fix is available for drupal/core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Drupal core arbitrary PHP code execution
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-25277.
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-2022-25277 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 377,636 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
drupal/core🐘drupal/coreReal-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
Drupal core sanitizes filenames with dangerous extensions upon upload (reference: SA-CORE-2020-012) and strips leading and trailing dots from filenames to prevent uploading server configuration files (reference: SA-CORE-2019-010). However, the protections for these two vulnerabilities previously did not work correctly together. As a result, if the site were configured to allow the upload of files with an htaccess extension, these files' filenames would not be properly sanitized. This could allow bypassing the protections provided by Drupal core's default .htaccess files and possible remote code execution on Apache web servers. This issue is mitigated by the fact that it requires a field administrator to explicitly configure a file field to allow htaccess as an extension (a restricted permission), or a contributed module or custom code that overrides allowed file uploads.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/core | ≥ 8.0.0&&< 9.3.19 | 9.3.19composer require drupal/core:^9.3.19 |
| 🐘Packagist | drupal/core | ≥ 9.4.0&&< 9.4.3 | 9.4.3composer require drupal/core:^9.4.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for drupal/core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update drupal/core to 9.3.19 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-25277 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-2022-25277 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-25277. 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-2022-25277 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-25277 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.