CVE-2023-38205ColdFusion Bypass - Vulnerability disclosure in ColdFusion | BYPASS CVE-2023-29298
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 99.8%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.1% of all CVEs
- YesKnown exploitedin CISA's KEV since 20 Jul 2023
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Adobe ColdFusion versions 2018u18 (and earlier), 2021u8 (and earlier) and 2023u2 (and earlier) are affected by an Improper Access Control vulnerability that could result in a Security feature bypass. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to access the administration CFM and CFC endpoints. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction.
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as Adobe ColdFusion Improper Access Control Vulnerability.
- Added
- 20 Jul 2023
- Fix due (US federal)
- 10 Aug 2023
- Used by ransomware
- Not known
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database lists it as exploited, from CISA's KEV, since 20 Jul 2023.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Nuclei template for it. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Show the exploits1
Nuclei templates1 template
- Adobe ColdFusion - Access Control Bypass (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-38205.yamlSeverity high
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By adobe
- 7 days later
· 7 days later
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited in the wild
- 56 days later
· 56 days later
Published
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| adobeCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 99.8% · top 0.1% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
- affected ≤ cf2023U2
References
References2
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- CISA KEV catalog (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-42025 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-38205)Record last updated .