CVE-2025-49138 — haxcms
MEDIUMCVE-2025-49138 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Path Traversal vulnerability in elmsln/haxcms. A fix is available for elmsln/haxcms — see the affected versions and patch details below.
HAX CMS vulnerable to Local File Inclusion via saveOutline API Location Parameter
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-2025-49138.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
elmsln/haxcmsReal-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
An authenticated Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability in the HAXCMS saveOutline endpoint allows a low-privileged user to read arbitrary files on the server by manipulating the location field written into site.json. This enables attackers to exfiltrate sensitive system files such as /etc/passwd, application secrets, or configuration files accessible to the web server (www-data).
Details
The vulnerability stems from the way the HAXCMS backend handles the location field in the site's outline. When a user sends a POST request to /system/api/saveOutline, the backend stores the provided location value directly into the site.json file associated with the site, without validating or sanitizing the input.
Later the location parameter is interpreted by the CMS like in HAXCMSSite.php line 1248 to resolve and load the content for a given node. If the location field contains a relative path like ../../../etc/passwd, the application will attempt to read and render that file.
PoC
-
Authenticate to the CMS and retrieve the JWT and CSRF token.
-
Issue a POST request to /system/api/saveOutline with the path traversal injection via the location parameter :
- Curl the website root to see the file contents.
Impact
This is an authenticated Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability, via the location parameter the attacker can read any file on the filesystem that is accessible by the www-data user.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | elmsln/haxcms | all versions | 11.0.0composer require elmsln/haxcms:^11.0.0 |
Affected Products
haxcms-phppsuDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for elmsln/haxcms, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update elmsln/haxcms to 11.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-49138 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-49138 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.