{"id":69818,"date":"2025-09-02T15:29:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:29:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-11-02T15:08:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T21:08:00","slug":"cve-2025-52122-critical-server-side-template-injection-ssti-vulnerability-in-freeform-plugin-for-craftcms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52122-critical-server-side-template-injection-ssti-vulnerability-in-freeform-plugin-for-craftcms\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-52122: Critical Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI) Vulnerability in Freeform Plugin for CraftCMS<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE-2025-52122 represents a major cyber threat that cybersecurity experts and system administrators managing CraftCMS should be aware of. The vulnerability impacts the Freeform plugin, versions 5.0.0 to 5.10.15, a widely used component of CraftCMS. This vulnerability is highly critical, primarily because it allows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-24298-arbitrary-code-execution-vulnerability-in-openharmony\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"77769\">arbitrary code<\/a> injection by any user with access to form editing. As a result, it opens the door for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-42950-sap-landscape-transformation-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"77543\">potential system<\/a> compromise and data leakage, putting sensitive content at risk of exposure.<br \/>\nThe reason why this matters is that CraftCMS and its Freeform plugin are often used by organizations to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-57119-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-online-library-management-system-v-3-0\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89649\">manage and display content online<\/a>. If the vulnerability is exploited, not only could an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-25268-unauthenticated-adjacent-attacker-accessing-api-endpoint\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"77686\">attacker gain access<\/a> to sensitive data, but they could also take control of the system, leading to severe operational disruptions and potential financial losses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-52122<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical (9.8 CVSS Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low (Limited to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3498-unauthenticated-user-access-and-modification-of-radiflow-isap-smart-collector-configuration\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"92253\">users with form editing access<\/a>)<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-50160-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-windows-rras-posing-system-compromise-risk\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78502\">System compromise<\/a> and data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1894559951\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Freeform Plugin for CraftCMS | 5.0.0 to 5.10.15<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2023-28906-command-injection-vulnerability-in-mib3-infotainment\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"77425\">vulnerability in Freeform allows an attacker to inject<\/a> arbitrary code into the CraftCMS system. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6454-authenticated-user-exploit-in-gitlab-ce-ee-through-proxy-environments\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90762\">exploit is possible because user<\/a> input in the form submission title field is not correctly sanitized. An attacker with access to form editing can inject malicious code in the form&#8217;s title field, which the server then processes as a template, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-21165-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-substance3d-designer-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"77443\">leading to arbitrary code<\/a> execution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4098180045\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>An example of how this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-21120-trusting-http-permission-methods-on-the-server-side-vulnerability-in-dell-avamar\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"81480\">vulnerability could be exploited is shown in the following HTTP<\/a> request:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/craftcms\/form\/edit HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com\nContent-Type: application\/json\nCookie: SESSIONID=...\n{\n&quot;form_id&quot;: &quot;1&quot;,\n&quot;title&quot;: &quot;{{&#039;7&#039;*7}}&quot;,\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the attacker uses the title field in the form to inject a simple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49759-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-sql-server-potentially-enabling-privilege-escalation-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"79165\">template<\/a> expression `{{&#8216;7&#8217;*7}}` which when processed by the server, gets evaluated as &#8217;49. Note that this is a harmless example, but a malicious actor could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8715-arbitrary-code-and-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-postgresql\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78776\">inject much harmful code<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To mitigate this vulnerability, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5821-critical-authentication-bypass-vulnerability-in-case-theme-user-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83259\">users of affected versions of the Freeform plugin<\/a> should apply the vendor&#8217;s patch immediately. If applying the patch is not immediately feasible, consider using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as a temporary mitigation measure. It is crucial to remember that these are temporary fixes and that the most effective solution is to apply the vendor&#8217;s patch to completely eliminate the vulnerability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview CVE-2025-52122 represents a major cyber threat that cybersecurity experts and system administrators managing CraftCMS should be aware of. The vulnerability impacts the Freeform plugin, versions 5.0.0 to 5.10.15, a widely used component of CraftCMS. This vulnerability is highly critical, primarily because it allows arbitrary code injection by any user with access to form editing. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[78,80],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-69818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-injection","attack_vector-rce"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69818"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85469,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69818\/revisions\/85469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69818"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=69818"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=69818"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=69818"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=69818"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=69818"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=69818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}