CVE-2023-22727 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) SQL Injection vulnerability in cakephp/cakephp. A fix is available for cakephp/cakephp — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Database Query::offset() and limit() vulnerable to SQL injection in cakephp
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2023-22727.
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-2023-22727 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
cakephp/cakephp🐘cakephp/cakephp🐘cakephp/cakephp🐘cakephp/database🐘cakephp/database🐘cakephp/databaseReal-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
CakePHP is a development framework for PHP web apps. In affected versions the Cake\Database\Query::limit() and Cake\Database\Query::offset() methods are vulnerable to SQL injection if passed un-sanitized user request data. This issue has been fixed in 4.2.12, 4.3.11, 4.4.10. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may mitigate this issue by using CakePHP's Pagination library. Manually validating or casting parameters to these methods will also mitigate the issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/cakephp | ≥ 4.2.0&&< 4.2.12 | 4.2.12composer require cakephp/cakephp:^4.2.12 |
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/cakephp | ≥ 4.3.0&&< 4.3.11 | 4.3.11composer require cakephp/cakephp:^4.3.11 |
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/cakephp | ≥ 4.4.0&&< 4.4.10 | 4.4.10composer require cakephp/cakephp:^4.4.10 |
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/database | ≥ 4.2.0&&< 4.2.12 | 4.2.12composer require cakephp/database:^4.2.12 |
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/database | ≥ 4.3.0&&< 4.3.11 | 4.3.11composer require cakephp/database:^4.3.11 |
| 🐘Packagist | cakephp/database | ≥ 4.4.0&&< 4.4.10 | 4.4.10composer require cakephp/database:^4.4.10 |
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 4.2.12 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-22727 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-2023-22727 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-22727. 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-2023-22727 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-22727 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.