cms vulnerability

Craft CMS 4.8.0 through 4.18.5 and 5.0.0 through 5.10.12 sign an authenticated user's attacker-controlled license-shun cookie with the same key and format used to validate signed redirect parameters, because the HMAC signature is not bound to its purpose (Yii's cookieValidationKey is derived from the same Craft securityKey used for signed request parameters). An authenticated, non-administrator user (Control Panel access is not required) can set the cookie via the license-shun endpoint and transplant the signed envelope into the redirect parameter; on a successful login, Craft validates the signature and renders the authenticated bytes as an unsandboxed Twig template, where Twig's map filter accepts a string callback and allows PHP system() to execute arbitrary operating-system commands as the web-server user. Exploitation requires an account using password authentication without active 2FA, the default request configuration, and availability of PHP system(). The issue is fixed in 4.18.6 and 5.10.13.

Published 16 Sep 2026Updated 22 Sep 20262 sources
CVSS 8.7

What happened

Craft CMS 4.8.0 through 4.18.5 and 5.0.0 through 5.10.12 sign an authenticated user's attacker-controlled license-shun cookie with the same key and format used to validate signed redirect parameters, because the HMAC signature is not bound to its purpose (Yii's cookieValidationKey is derived from the same Craft securityKey used for signed request parameters). An authenticated, non-administrator user (Control Panel access is not required) can set the cookie via the license-shun endpoint and transplant the signed envelope into the redirect parameter; on a successful login, Craft validates the signature and renders the authenticated bytes as an unsandboxed Twig template, where Twig's map filter accepts a string callback and allows PHP system() to execute arbitrary operating-system commands as the web-server user. Exploitation requires an account using password authentication without active 2FA, the default request configuration, and availability of PHP system(). The issue is fixed in 4.18.6 and 5.10.13.

Affected versions

cms: 4.8.0 through before 4.18.6 (semver); 5.0.0 through before 5.10.13 (semver) Fixed: See vendor advisory.

Why it matters

Review the vendor advisory and exposure of the affected product to determine operational impact.

Detection & mitigation

  • Apply vendor-provided updates or mitigations.
  • Review affected product exposure and access logs.

Public PoC references

No public PoC reference has passed the current publication threshold.