CVE-2023-40028Arbitrary file read via symlinks in Ghost
- 4.9MediumCVSS base score
- 65.7%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.7% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
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.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list an Exploit-DB entry for it.
Show the exploits1
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Ghost CMS 5.59.1 - Arbitrary File Read (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 52409webapps, multiplepublished 11 Aug 2025Not verified
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 GitHub_M
- 7 days later
· 7 days later
Published
- 14 months later
· 14 months 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium4.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 65.7% · top 0.7% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.9.
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
References
References2
- https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/security/advisories/GHSA-9c9v-w225-v5rg (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/commit/690fbf3f7302ff3f77159c0795928bdd20f41205 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
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)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-2256 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-9c9v-w225-v5rg (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-2023-40028)Record last updated .