{"id":75718,"date":"2025-09-16T09:29:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T09:29:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-10T00:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T06:14:16","slug":"cve-2025-54261-critical-path-traversal-vulnerability-in-coldfusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54261-critical-path-traversal-vulnerability-in-coldfusion\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-54261: Critical Path Traversal Vulnerability in ColdFusion<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this post, we are delving into a critical vulnerability, CVE-2025-54261, that impacts multiple versions of the ColdFusion web application development platform. This vulnerability, termed as an &#8216;Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory&#8217; or &#8216;Path Traversal&#8217; vulnerability, potentially allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system. It is important to address this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-29514-high-severity-access-control-vulnerability-in-d-link-dsl-7740c-router\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83191\">vulnerability due to its high severity<\/a> score and the potential for system compromise or data leakage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-54261<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical (9.0)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7775-critical-memory-overflow-vulnerability-in-netscaler-adc-and-gateway-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83790\">System compromise and potential<\/a> data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2891525285\" 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>ColdFusion | 2025.3<br \/>\nColdFusion | 2023.15<br \/>\nColdFusion | 2021.21 and earlier<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A &#8216;Path Traversal&#8217; <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=\"83267\">vulnerability occurs when an application improperly restricts the user&#8217;s<\/a> ability to navigate the file directory. In the case of CVE-2025-54261, an attacker can exploit this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53518-an-integer-overflow-vulnerability-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution-in-the-biosig-project-libbiosig\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83242\">vulnerability to make ColdFusion execute arbitrary code<\/a> in a location of their choosing. This is achieved by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-25180-underprivileged-software-manipulates-gpu-system-calls-for-unauthorized-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88757\">manipulating variables that reference file paths in the system<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2350255800\" 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>As an example, the attacker might use a malicious HTTP request similar to the following:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/CFIDE\/adminapi\/administrator.cfc?method=login HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com\nContent-Type: application\/x-www-form-urlencoded\ncfadminPassword=attacker&amp;requestedfilepath=..\/..\/..\/..\/..\/etc\/passwd&amp;newfilepath=attacker-controlled-path<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In the above example, the &#8220;requestedfilepath&#8221; parameter is manipulated to move out of the intended directory (&#8216;..\/..\/..\/&#8217;) and read the &#8220;\/etc\/passwd&#8221; file. The &#8220;newfilepath&#8221; parameter is then used to specify the location where the attacker wants to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-41714-critical-vulnerability-in-upload-endpoint-causing-arbitrary-file-write-and-potential-remote-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89498\">write the file<\/a>.<br \/>\nThe above is a simplified example and real-world attacks would likely be more complex and tailored to the target environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Users of affected versions of ColdFusion are advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as it is available. As a temporary mitigation, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can help detect and block <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-1740-excessive-authentication-attempts-vulnerability-in-akinsoft-myrezzta\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"86753\">attempts to exploit this vulnerability<\/a>. However, these measures are not a substitute for applying the vendor patch and should be seen as a stopgap, rather than a long-term solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview In this post, we are delving into a critical vulnerability, CVE-2025-54261, that impacts multiple versions of the ColdFusion web application development platform. This vulnerability, termed as an &#8216;Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory&#8217; or &#8216;Path Traversal&#8217; vulnerability, potentially allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system. It is [&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":[85],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-75718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-directory-traversal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75718","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=75718"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82343,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75718\/revisions\/82343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=75718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}