GHSA-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in DotNetNuke.Core. A fix is available for DotNetNuke.Core — see the affected versions and patch details below.
DNN allows loading unused themes on anonymous clients through query parameters
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.
- 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-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p.
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-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p 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 377,333 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
DotNetNuke.CoreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects NuGet packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
Arbitrary themes can be loaded through query parameters. If an installed theme had a vulnerability, even if it was not used on any page, this could be loaded on unsuspecting clients without knowledge of the site owner.
Details
Many people who run DNN sites have a number of installed themes that they do not actually use. This could be because they were testing many themes during initial setup, because they have changed themes over time, or because they have development and production versions of a theme. Whatever the reason, many times the unused themes will become outdated over time as site admins wouldn't have reason to update something that is not used. However, this could introduce an entry point to exploit a vulnerable theme by making the server run the unused theme for unsuspecting client requests. Depending on the vulnerability in a theme, this could lead to server side or client side arbitrary code execution. With DNN 10.1.0 this functionality is now disabled by default but a setting was introduced in the Security module to turn activate the functionality.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| .NETNuGet | DotNetNuke.Core | all versions | 10.1.0dotnet add package DotNetNuke.Core --version 10.1.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for DotNetNuke.Core, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update DotNetNuke.Core to 10.1.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p 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-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p. 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-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-wq2j-w9pm-7x2p across NuGet dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.