Description

ColdFusion is affected by an Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') vulnerability that could result in a Security feature bypass. A low-privileged attacker could leverage this vulnerability to bypass security measures and gain unauthorized write access. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction. Scope is changed.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.7",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-11T17:18:00.167Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-11T17:18:00.167Z",
  "executiveSummary": "ColdFusion is affected by an OS Command Injection vulnerability categorized under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command. This security flaw enables a low-privileged attacker to successfully bypass established security features and attain unauthorized write access to affected systems.\nThe vulnerability presents significant risk implications to enterprise environments relying on ColdFusion for application hosting and services, as successful exploitation undermines core security boundaries. The attack vector does not require any user interaction, increasing the feasibility of automated or opportunistic exploitation attempts by malicious actors.\nWith a changed scope, the impact extends beyond the immediate application context, potentially allowing attackers to manipulate underlying operating system resources and configurations. Low-privileged authentication is the primary prerequisite for threat actors to leverage this vulnerability, making internal privilege escalation or compromised low-level accounts critical pivot points for executing the attack.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of special elements utilized in operating system commands within ColdFusion. This input validation and sanitization failure allows user-supplied data or parameters to directly influence execution contexts at the OS level.\nExploitation of this vulnerability requires a low-privileged attacker who possesses valid access or capabilities to interact with vulnerable functions or endpoints within the ColdFusion environment. Because the attack does not depend on user interaction, the threat actor can independently craft and deliver malicious payloads designed to execute arbitrary OS commands.\nThe attack flow initiates when the attacker supplies specially crafted input containing command separators or shell metacharacters to the vulnerable component in ColdFusion. Because the application fails to adequately sanitize or escape these special elements before passing them to the underlying operating system interpreter, the injected commands are executed with the privileges of the running process.\nUpon successful execution of the injected OS commands, the payload facilitates a security feature bypass, enabling the adversary to circumvent intended access controls and application-level restrictions. Consequently, this grants the low-privileged attacker unauthorized write access to system resources, files, or configurations, altering the security posture of the host environment."
}