GHSA-mcqj-7p29-9528 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.3) CWE-74 vulnerability in mantisbt/mantisbt. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for mantisbt/mantisbt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MantisBT Host Header Injection vulnerability
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-mcqj-7p29-9528.
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-mcqj-7p29-9528 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
mantisbt/mantisbtReal-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
Impact
Knowing a user's email address and username, an unauthenticated attacker can hijack the user's account by poisoning the link in the password reset notification message.
Patches
https://github.com/mantisbt/mantisbt/commit/7055731d09ff12b2781410a372f790172e279744
Workarounds
Define $g_path as appropriate in config_inc.php.
References
https://mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=19381
Credits
Thanks to the following security researchers for responsibly reporting and helping resolve this vulnerability.
- Pier-Luc Maltais (https://twitter.com/plmaltais)
- Hlib Yavorskyi (https://github.com/Kerkroups)
- Jingshao Chen (https://github.com/shaozi)
- Brandon Roldan
- nhchoudhary
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | mantisbt/mantisbt | all versions | 2.26.1composer require mantisbt/mantisbt:^2.26.1 |
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 mantisbt/mantisbt, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update mantisbt/mantisbt to 2.26.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-mcqj-7p29-9528 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-mcqj-7p29-9528 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-mcqj-7p29-9528. 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-mcqj-7p29-9528 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-mcqj-7p29-9528 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.