CVE-2023-6654 — phpems/phpems
MEDIUMCVE-2023-6654 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.3) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in phpems/phpems. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
PHPEMS Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2023-6654.
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-2023-6654 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
phpems/phpemsReal-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
A vulnerability classified as critical was found in PHPEMS 6.x/7.x/8.x/9.0. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality in the library lib/session.cls.php of the component Session Data Handler. The manipulation leads to deserialization. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The identifier VDB-247357 was assigned to this vulnerability.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | phpems/phpems | ≥ 6.0.0 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for phpems/phpems, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of phpems/phpems has shipped for CVE-2023-6654 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-2023-6654 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-6654. 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-2023-6654 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-6654 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.