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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.9

CVE-2023-40028 json

Arbitrary file read via symlinks in Ghost

published 2023-08-15 3 y ago modified 2026-09-08 2 mo ago also BIT-ghost-2023-40028 , EUVD-2023-2256 , GHSA-9c9v-w225-v5rg

cvss
4.9
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
69.0%
EPSS 69.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.3%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

Ghost is an open source content management system. Versions prior to 5.59.1 are subject to a vulnerability which allows authenticated users to upload files that are symlinks. This can be exploited to perform an arbitrary file read of any file on the host operating system. Site administrators can check for exploitation of this issue by looking for unknown symlinks within Ghost's `content/` folder. Version 5.59.1 contains a fix for this issue. All users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Patch / fix

  • npm ghost 5.59.1
  • bitnami ghost 5.59.1
  • ghost ghost 5.59.1

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. First public exploit (EDB-52409)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

68.95% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-52409 Ghost CMS 5.59.1 - Arbitrary File Read webapps, 2025-08-11

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
GitHub 3.1 4.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
OSV 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
npm ghost
<5.59.1
5.59.1
bitnami ghost
<5.59.1
5.59.1

Affected products

  • TryGhost Ghost

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.