Dotcms
CVE-2020-6754
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V5 - File Handling Path canonicalization, traversal prevention
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Discovery, Collection The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. Public proof-of-concept exploit code is available. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could access files and directories outside the intended path by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
dotCMS before 5.2.4 is vulnerable to directory traversal, leading to incorrect access control. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Validate and canonicalize file paths. Use chroot or sandboxing. Reject input containing path separators or '../' sequences.
Affects your stack
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Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Path Traversal (CWE-22), which allows attackers to access files and directories outside the intended path. dotCMS before 5.2.4 is vulnerable to directory traversal, leading to incorrect access control. It allows an attacker to read or execute files under $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/ROOT/assets (which should be a protected directory). Additionally, attackers can upload temporary files (e.g., .jsp files) into /webapps/ROOT/assets/tmp_upload, which can lead to remote command execution (with the permissions of the user running the dotCMS application). Affected products include: Dotcms. Version information: before 5.2.4.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
dotCMS before 5.2.4 is vulnerable to directory traversal, leading to incorrect access control. It allows an attacker to read or execute files under $TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/ROOT/assets (which should be a protected directory). Additionally, attackers can upload temporary files (e.g., .jsp files) into /webapps/ROOT/assets/tmp_upload, which can lead to remote command execution (with the permissions of the user running the dotCMS application).
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Path traversal exploits occur when applications use user-controlled input to construct file system paths without proper validation.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
An issue was discovered in the ContentResource API in dotCMS 3.0 through 22.02. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this
An issue was discovered in dotCMS through 3.6.1. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely expl
SQL injection vulnerability in the categoriesServlet servlet in dotCMS before 3.3.1 allows remote not authenticated atta
SQL injection in dotCMS Core (versions 25.11.04-1 through 26.04.28-02) lets remote unauthenticated attackers read, modif
SQL injection vulnerability in the "Site Browser > HTML pages" screen in dotCMS before 3.3.1 allows remote authenticated
SQL injection vulnerability in the "Site Browser > Links pages" screen in dotCMS before 3.3.1 allows remote authenticate
SQL injection vulnerability in the "Content Types > Content Types" screen in dotCMS before 3.3.1 allows remote authentic
SQL injection vulnerability in the JSONTags servlet in dotCMS before 3.3.1 allows remote authenticated attackers to exec
SQL injection vulnerability in the "Site Browser > Containers pages" screen in dotCMS before 3.3.1 allows remote authent
SQL injection vulnerability in the "Site Browser > Templates pages" screen in dotCMS before 3.3.1 allows remote authenti
dotCMS before 20.10.1 allows SQL injection, as demonstrated by the /api/v1/containers orderby parameter. Rated high seve
Arbitrary file upload vulnerability in com/dotmarketing/servlets/AjaxFileUploadServlet.class in dotCMS 4.1.1 allows remo
Exploit-DB