Ghost: Server-side request forgery via DNS rebinding in external request handlingGHSA-ch52-px8q-f22j
MEDIUMFix: TryGhost/Ghost#26754GHSA-ch52-px8q-f22j is a medium-severity (CVSS 4) CWE-367 vulnerability in ghost. A fix is available for ghost — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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 GHSA-ch52-px8q-f22j.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-ch52-px8q-f22j by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 388,997 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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
Impact
Ghost’s private-IP check for outbound HTTP requests could be bypassed via DNS rebinding, allowing an attacker to coerce the Ghost server into reaching hosts on internal networks through features that issue external fetches.
Vulnerable versions
This vulnerability is present in Ghost from v6.0.9 up to v6.21.0.
Patches
v6.21.1 contains a fix for this issue.
How to update
For self-hosters using Docker, find Docker's official Ghost image here. Updating a Docker-based Ghost instance is documented here.
If your Ghost is a Ghost-CLI install see our documentation on updating it to the latest version here.
Workarounds
If upgrading immediately is not possible, operators can reduce exposure by preventing the Ghost server from reaching sensitive internal ranges at the network layer — for example, egress firewall rules that block the Ghost process from initiating connections to RFC1918 networks, loopback, link-local (including 169.254.169.254) and any other internal service ranges. Disabling features that trigger outbound fetches (oEmbed, webmentions, recommendations) will further limit the attack surface but does not remove the underlying issue.
References
Ghost thanks Oluwaseun Esther Folorunsho, Lakshmikanthan K (@l3tchupkt), Offgrid Security, and Baki for disclosing this vulnerability responsibly.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, email us at [email protected].
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | ghost | ≥ 6.0.9&&< 6.21.2 | 6.21.2npm install ghost@6.21.2 |
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 6.21.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-ch52-px8q-f22j is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Restrict outbound requests from the affected component to an allowlist of hosts, block access to link-local and internal address ranges at the network layer, and require authentication on internal services so a forged request cannot reach them unauthenticated.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-ch52-px8q-f22j in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.