CVE-2025-23209 is a high-severity (CVSS 8) Code Injection vulnerability in craftcms/cms. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-02-20) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available for craftcms/cms — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Potential RCE with a compromised security key in craft/cms
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2025-02-20. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2025-03-13.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2025-23209.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2025-23209 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
craftcms/cms🐘craftcms/cmsReal-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
Craft is a flexible, user-friendly CMS for creating custom digital experiences on the web and beyond. This is an remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that affects Craft 4 and 5 installs where your security key has already been compromised. Anyone running an unpatched version of Craft with a compromised security key is affected. This vulnerability has been patched in Craft 5.5.8 and 4.13.8. Users who cannot update to a patched version, should rotate their security keys and ensure their privacy to help migitgate the issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | craftcms/cms | ≥ 5.0.0-RC1&&< 5.5.8 | 5.5.8composer require craftcms/cms:^5.5.8 |
| 🐘Packagist | craftcms/cms | ≥ 4.0.0-RC1&&< 4.13.8 | 4.13.8composer require craftcms/cms:^4.13.8 |
Affected Products
craft cmscraftcmsDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for craftcms/cms, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update craftcms/cms to 5.5.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-23209 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-23209 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.