CVE-2026-26980 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.4) SQL Injection vulnerability in ghost. 5 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for ghost — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ghost has a SQL Injection in its Content API
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-2026-26980.
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-2026-26980 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE sits: patch-first territory.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% 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.
ghostnpmDescription
Ghost is a Node.js content management system. Versions 3.24.0 through 6.19.0 allow unauthenticated attackers to perform arbitrary reads from the database. This issue has been fixed in version 6.19.1.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ghost | ≥ 3.24.0&&< 6.19.1 | 6.19.1npm install ghost@6.19.1 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Ghost CMS 6.19.0 - SQLi
by Maksim Rogov · May 7, 2026
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ghost, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ghost to 6.19.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-26980 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-2026-26980 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-26980. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect CVE-2026-26980
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2026-26980 -u https://target- Template
- Ghost CMS Content API - SQL Injection
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- An unauthenticated attacker can extract arbitrary data from the Ghost database including user credentials, API keys, and all content, potentially leading to full compromise of the CMS.
- Remediation
- Upgrade Ghost CMS to version 6.19.1 or later which uses parameterized queries for slug filter ordering.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (domwhewell-sage), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-26980 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-26980 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.