CVE-2026-25544 — @payloadcms/drizzle
CRITICALCVE-2026-25544 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) SQL Injection vulnerability in @payloadcms/drizzle. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for @payloadcms/drizzle — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Payload has an SQL Injection in JSON/RichText Queries on PostgreSQL/SQLite Adapters
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-2026-25544.
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-2026-25544 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 377,166 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.
@payloadcms/drizzlenpmDescription
Payload is a free and open source headless content management system. Prior to 3.73.0, when querying JSON or richText fields, user input was directly embedded into SQL without escaping, enabling blind SQL injection attacks. An unauthenticated attacker could extract sensitive data (emails, password reset tokens) and achieve full account takeover without password cracking. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.73.0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | @payloadcms/drizzle | all versions | 3.73.0npm install @payloadcms/drizzle@3.73.0 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Payload CMS 3.72.0 - Blind SQL Injection
by cardosource · Sep 1, 2026
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for @payloadcms/drizzle, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update @payloadcms/drizzle to 3.73.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-25544 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-2026-25544 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-25544. 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-2026-25544 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-25544 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.