CVE-2023-32235 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Path Traversal vulnerability in ghost. 4 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for ghost — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Path Traversal in Ghost
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.
- 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-2023-32235.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-32235 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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.
ghostnpmDescription
Ghost before 5.42.1 allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files within the active theme's folder via /assets/built%2F..%2F..%2F/ directory traversal. This occurs in frontend/web/middleware/static-theme.js.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ghost | all versions | 5.42.1npm install ghost@5.42.1 |
Affected Products
ghostghostResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Ghost CMS 5.42.1 - Path Traversal
by İbrahimsql · Aug 11, 2025
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ghost, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ghost to 5.42.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-32235 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
How to detect CVE-2023-32235
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2023-32235 -u https://target- Template
- Ghost CMS < 5.42.1 - Path Traversal
- Severity
- high
- Impact
- An attacker can exploit this vulnerability to access sensitive files on the server, potentially leading to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information.
- Remediation
- Fixed in version 5.42.1
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (j3ssie), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-32235 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.