GHSA-w52v-v783-gw97 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 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 GHSA-w52v-v783-gw97.
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-w52v-v783-gw97 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 376,715 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
Impact
A SQL injection vulnerability existed in Ghost's Content API that allowed unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary data from the database.
Vulnerable Versions
This vulnerability is present in Ghost v3.24.0 to v6.19.0.
Patches
v6.19.1 contains a fix for this issue.
Note: as this vulnerability lets an attacker gain access to a site's API keys, we recommend reviewing staff users and rotating keys. We generally recommend always updating Ghost to its most current version.
Workarounds
There is no application-level workaround. The Content API key is public by design, so restricting key access does not mitigate this vulnerability.
As a temporary mitigation, a reverse proxy or WAF rule can be used to block Content API requests containing slug%3A%5B or slug:[ in the query string filter parameter. Note that this may break legitimate slug filter functionality.
References
We thank Nicholas Carlini using Claude, Anthropic 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 | ≥ 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 GHSA-w52v-v783-gw97 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-w52v-v783-gw97 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-w52v-v783-gw97. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
How to detect GHSA-w52v-v783-gw97
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id ghsa-w52v-v783-gw97 -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 GHSA-w52v-v783-gw97 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-w52v-v783-gw97 across npm dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.