GHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp — mediawiki/core
MEDIUMGHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Improper Authentication vulnerability in mediawiki/core. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for mediawiki/core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Mediawiki BotPassword can bypass CentralAuth's account lock
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
GHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp 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
mediawiki/core🐘mediawiki/core🐘mediawiki/core🐘mediawiki/coreReal-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
Mediawiki 1.31 before 1.31.1, 1.30.1, 1.29.3 and 1.27.5 contains a flaw where BotPasswords can bypass CentralAuth's account lock
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | mediawiki/core | ≥ 1.27.0&&< 1.27.5 | 1.27.5composer require mediawiki/core:^1.27.5 |
| 🐘Packagist | mediawiki/core | ≥ 1.29.0&&< 1.29.3 | 1.29.3composer require mediawiki/core:^1.29.3 |
| 🐘Packagist | mediawiki/core | ≥ 1.30.0&&< 1.30.1 | 1.30.1composer require mediawiki/core:^1.30.1 |
| 🐘Packagist | mediawiki/core | ≥ 1.31.0&&< 1.31.1 | 1.31.1composer require mediawiki/core:^1.31.1 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for mediawiki/core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update mediawiki/core to 1.27.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp 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 GHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.10 | mediawiki-0:1.27.7-1.el7 | RHSA-2019:3238 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 | mediawiki-0:1.27.7-1.el7 | RHSA-2019:3142 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.9 | mediawiki123-0:1.23.17-1.el7 | RHSA-2019:3813 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-5c6w-f4w2-2grp across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.