CVE-2025-59288 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-347 vulnerability in playwright. A fix is available for playwright — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Playwright downloads and installs browsers without verifying the authenticity of the SSL certificate
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-2025-59288.
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-2025-59288 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
How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.
playwrightnpmDescription
Summary
Use of curl with the -k (or --insecure) flag in installer scripts allows attackers to deliver arbitrary executables via Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. This can lead to full system compromise, as the downloaded files are installed as privileged applications.
Details
The following scripts in the microsoft/playwright repository at commit bee11cbc28f24bd18e726163d0b9b1571b4f26a8 use curl -k to fetch and install executable packages without verifying the authenticity of the SSL certificate:
packages/playwright-core/bin/reinstall_chrome_beta_mac.shpackages/playwright-core/bin/reinstall_chrome_stable_mac.shpackages/playwright-core/bin/reinstall_msedge_dev_mac.shpackages/playwright-core/bin/reinstall_msedge_beta_mac.shpackages/playwright-core/bin/reinstall_msedge_stable_mac.sh
In each case, the shell scripts download a browser installer package using curl -k and immediately install it:
curl --retry 3 -o ./<pkg-file> -k <url>
sudo installer -pkg /tmp/<pkg-file> -target /
Disabling SSL verification (-k) means the download can be intercepted and replaced with malicious content.
PoC
A high-level exploitation scenario:
- An attacker performs a MitM attack on a network where the victim runs one of these scripts.
- The attacker intercepts the HTTPS request and serves a malicious package (for example, a trojaned browser installer).
- Because
curl -kis used, the script downloads and installs the attacker's payload without any certificate validation. - The attacker's code is executed with system privileges, leading to full compromise.
No special configuration is needed: simply running these scripts on any untrusted or hostile network is enough.
Impact
This is a critical Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability due to improper SSL certificate validation (CWE-295: Improper Certificate Validation). Any user or automation running these scripts is at risk of arbitrary code execution as root/admin, system compromise, data theft, or persistent malware installation. The risk is especially severe because browser packages are installed with elevated privileges and the scripts may be used in CI/CD or developer environments.
Fix
- https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/commit/72c62d840247d9defd87c6beb0344d456794b570
- https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/pull/37532
- https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/releases/tag/v1.56.0
Credit
- This vulnerability was uncovered by tooling by Socket
- This vulnerability was confirmed by @evilpacket
- This vulnerability was reported by @JLLeitschuh at Socket
Disclosure
- September 10th, 2025 - Disclosed to Microsoft privately via https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/security/advisories/GHSA-gx27-2j22-qcx8
- September 11th, 2025 - Reported to Microsoft via MSRC Researcher Portal - https://msrc.microsoft.com/report/vulnerability/VULN-162854
- September 11th, 2025 - Microsoft closed report as "Complete - N/A"
- September 18th, 2025 - Following a LinkedIn Post
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | playwright | all versions | 1.55.1npm install playwright@1.55.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for playwright, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update playwright to 1.55.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-59288 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-2025-59288 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-59288. 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-2025-59288 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-59288 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.