CVE-2025-23215 — pmd-designer
Fix: pmd/pmd-designer@1548f5fCVE-2025-23215 is a Information Exposure vulnerability in net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer. A fix is available for net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer — see the affected versions and patch details below.
PMD Designer's release key passphrase (GPG) available on Maven Central in cleartext
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-2025-23215.
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.
Real-World Exposure
net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer☕net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui☕net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-coreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
While rebuilding PMD Designer for Reproducible Builds and digging into issues, I found out that passphrase for gpg.keyname=0xD0BF1D737C9A1C22 is included in jar published to Maven Central.
Details
I removed 2 lines from https://github.com/jvm-repo-rebuild/reproducible-central/blob/master/content/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-designer/pmd-designer-7.0.0.diffoscope but real content is:
├── net/sourceforge/pmd/util/fxdesigner/designer.properties
│ @@ -1,14 +1,12 @@
│ #Properties
│ checkstyle.plugin.version=3.3.1
│ checkstyle.version=10.14.0
│ -gpg.keyname=0xD0BF1D737C9A1C22
│ -gpg.passphrase=evicx0nuPfvSVhVyeXpw
│ jar.plugin.version=3.3.0
│ -java.version=11.0.22
│ +java.version=11.0.25
│ javadoc.plugin.version=3.6.3
│ jflex-output=/home/runner/work/pmd-designer/pmd-designer/target/generated-sources/jflex
│ junit5.version=5.8.2
│ kotest.version=5.5.5
│ kotlin.version=1.7.20
│ local.lib.repo=/home/runner/work/pmd-designer/pmd-designer/lib/mvn-repo
│ openjfx.scope=provided
PoC
./rebuild.sh content/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-designer/pmd-designer-7.0.0.buildspec
Impact
After further analysis, the passphrase of the following two keys have been compromised:
94A5 2756 9CAF 7A47 AFCA BDE4 86D3 7ECA 8C2E 4C5B: PMD Designer (Release Signing Key) [email protected] This key has been used since 2019 with the release of net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui:6.14.0. The following versions are signed with the same key: 6.16.0, 6.17.0, 6.19.0.EBB2 41A5 45CB 17C8 7FAC B2EB D0BF 1D73 7C9A 1C22: PMD Release Signing Key [email protected] This key has been used since 2020 with the release of net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui:6.21.0 and all the other modules of PMD such as net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core:6.21.0.
This key has also been used for PMD 7, for the designer, e.g. net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer:7.0.0 and net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core:7.0.0. The versions between 6.21.0 and 7.9.0 are signed with this key.
Additionally the key has been used to sign the last release of PMD Eclipse Plugin 7.9.0.v20241227-1626-r.
The keys have been used exclusively for signing artifacts that we published to Maven Central under group id net.sourceforge.pmd and once for our pmd-eclipse-plugin. The private key itself is not known to have been compromised itself, but given its passphrase is, it must also be considered potentially compromised.
As a mitigation, both compromised keys have been revoked so that no future use of the keys are possible.
For future releases of PMD, PMD Designer and PMD Eclipse Plugin we use a new release signing key:
2EFA 55D0 785C 31F9 56F2 F87E A0B5 CA1A 4E08 6838 (PMD Release Signing Key [email protected]).
Note, that the published artifacts in Maven Central under the group id net.sourceforge.pmd are not
compromised and the signatures are valid. No other past usages of the private key is known to the project
and no future use is possible due to the revocation. If anybody finds a past abuse of the private key,
please share with us.
Note, the module net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui has been renamed to net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer since PMD 7, so there won't be a fixed version for pmd-ui.
Fixes
- Reworked build script in PMD Designer to not include all system properties
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer | ≥ 7.0.0&&< 7.10.0 | 7.10.0net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer:7.10.0 |
| ☕Maven | net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui | ≥ 6.14.0 | No fix |
| ☕Maven | net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core | ≥ 6.21.0&&< 7.10.0 | 7.10.0net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core:7.10.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer to 7.10.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-23215 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-2025-23215 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-23215. 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-2025-23215 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-23215 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.