CVE-2025-66295 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Path Traversal vulnerability in getgrav/grav. A fix is available for getgrav/grav — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Grav vulnerable to Path traversal / arbitrary YAML write via user creation leading to Account Takeover / System Corruption
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-2025-66295.
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-2025-66295 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
getgrav/gravReal-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
When a user with privilege of user creation creates a new user through the Admin UI and supplies a username containing path traversal sequences (for example ..\Nijat or ../Nijat), Grav writes the account YAML file to an unintended path outside user/accounts/. The written YAML can contain account fields such as email, fullname, twofa_secret, and hashed_password. In my tests, I was able to cause the Admin UI to write the following content into arbitrary .yaml files (including files like email.yaml, system.yaml, or other site YAML files like admin.yaml) — demonstrating arbitrary YAML write / overwrite via the Admin UI.
Example observed content written by the Admin UI (test data): username: ..\Nijat state: enabled email: [email protected] fullname: 'Nijat Alizada' language: en content_editor: default twofa_enabled: false twofa_secret: RWVEIHC2AFVD6FCR6UHCO3DS4HWXKKDT avatar: { } hashed_password: $2y$10$wl9Ktv3vUmDKCt8o6u2oOuRZr1I04OE0YZf2sJ1QcAherbNnk1XVC access: site: login: true
Steps to Reproduce
- Log in to the Grav Admin UI as an administrator.
- Create a new user with the following values (example): a. Username: ..\POC-TOKEN-2025-09-29 b. Fullname: POC-TOKEN-2025-09-29 c. Email: [email protected] d. Password: (any password) Observe that a YAML file containing the POC-TOKEN is written outside user/accounts/ (for example in the parent directory of user/accounts)
Impact
- Config corruption / service disruption: Overwriting system.yaml, email.yaml, or plugin config files with attacker-controlled YAML (even if limited to fields present in account YAML) could break functionality, disable services, or cause misconfiguration requiring recovery from backups.
- Account takeover, any user with create user privilege can modify other user's email and password by just creating a new user with the name "..\accounts\USERNAME_OF_VICTIM"
Proof of Concept
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cf503d74-f765-4031-8e22-71f6b3630847
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | getgrav/grav | all versions | 1.8.0-beta.27composer require getgrav/grav:^1.8.0-beta.27 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for getgrav/grav, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update getgrav/grav to 1.8.0-beta.27 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-66295 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-2025-66295 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-66295. 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-2025-66295 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-66295 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.