Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
-
AccessInduce CakePHP Http Client outbound request
-
DeliveryReturn Set-Cookie with crafted Domain suffix
-
ExploitUnanchored suffix match stores cookie in shared jar
-
ExecutionJar replays cookie to suffix-related host
-
ImpactSession cookie theft or cookie injection
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A07:2025 - Authentication Failures
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Origin validation
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires the victim CakePHP application (≤5.4.3) to use Http\Client with a CookieCollection cookie jar that is reused across outbound requests, and to contact an attacker-controlled or compromised server, or a host whose name has a suffix relationship to a victim domain (e.g. a host ending in the victim domain suffix, or where the cookie Domain is a suffix/parent of the request host). The root cause is unanchored suffix matching: inbound, Set-Cookie Domain values for unrelated hosts were accepted; outbound, the regex '/domain$/' against the host let cookies for 'example.com' leak to 'notexample.com'. Limiting factors: this is a client-side library feature, so applications that do not use Http\Client, or do not persist/share a CookieCollection across hosts, are not exposed; the attacker cannot act purely remotely against a server but must influence which hosts the client talks to or control a suffix-adjacent host (reflected as AC:H/AT:P). Updating is the fix the vendor provides. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-priority, client-side flaw rather than a high-urgency emergency. The CVSS 4.0 base score is 6.3 (Medium) with VC:L/VI:L and no availability impact, and the vector encodes real friction: AC:H and AT:P mean exploitation depends on conditions outside the attacker's full control (the victim CakePHP application must make outbound requests via Http\Client with a reused CookieCollection, and the attacker must control a host whose name has a suffix relationship to a victim domain). PR:N confirms no authentication is required of the attacker's malicious server. No EPSS score and no CISA KEV entry are present in the input, so there is no evidence of mass or active exploitation; the vuln.today decision label is 'this_month', consistent with a patch-soon-not-drop-everything posture. A public technical writeup (abraxaslabs) and a VulnCheck advisory describe the mechanism, which raises the chance of weaponization over time, but neither is marked as confirmed working exploit code. Note one labeling tension to verify: the vector is AV:N yet this is fundamentally a client-side cookie-jar issue triggered when the CakePHP app acts as an HTTP client - the 'network' vector reflects the malicious-server interaction, not a directly reachable server-side endpoint, so defenders should scope risk to applications that actually use Http\Client with a shared cookie collection. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A CakePHP application uses Http\Client with a persistent CookieCollection to call external services, and an attacker controls (or compromises) one of those endpoints or a host whose name shares a suffix with a victim domain. The malicious server returns Set-Cookie headers with crafted Domain values; because of unanchored suffix matching the cookies are accepted into the shared jar and later either replayed to an unrelated victim host or used to plant/overwrite cookies for that host, enabling session cookie leakage or cookie injection. A public technical writeup describing the flaw exists, but it is not verified as working exploit code. |
Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.
Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 30, 2026
Cookie domain handling in CakePHP's Http Client CookieCollection, affecting releases through 5.4.3, relies on unanchored suffix matching in both directions: outbound requests could carry cookies scoped to 'example.com' to a host such as 'notexample.com', and inbound Set-Cookie headers with a Domain belonging to an unrelated host were accepted into the jar. An attacker who controls a suffix-adjacent or otherwise unrelated server that a victim application contacts through Http\Client can therefore read leaked session cookies or plant cookies into a cookie jar shared across hosts. The flaw is client-side and exploitable only where an application uses Http\Client and reuses one CookieCollection across outbound requests; it is not in CISA KEV, and the supplied sources do not confirm working exploit code, while an upstream fix exists in commits referenced by PR 19702 and a vendor advisory is available.
RemediationAI
Upstream fix available (PR/commit); released patched version not independently confirmed. The correction is carried in the commits referenced by the vendor, notably 01753266738606bc0e48e61e44a6e252f11386f9, 5d9d01a91f0e678d857a94115de12c3e02f3fbba, bbba5ed06d5cea7e78333b01e65557cff7a28306 and 819b45cbcc5ba864568cb57f62e4fde650b41161, merged through https://github.com/cakephp/cakephp/pull/19702; because no tagged release number is given in the supplied data, upgrade to a CakePHP release that contains that merge and confirm the fixed tag in the advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cakephp-through-5.4.3-cookie-leakage-via-http-client-cookiecollection-domain-matching before closing out. Until then, reduce exposure by not reusing a single CookieCollection cookie jar across outbound requests to different hosts and by restricting Http\Client calls to hosts you control or trust, since applications that do not use Http\Client or do not persist and share the jar across hosts are not exposed; note that these are scoping measures only, the vendor's fix is the update, and the patched code still does not implement public-suffix protection, so jar hygiene across registrable domains remains the caller's responsibility.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The issue is CWE-346 (Origin Validation Error) in CakePHP's PSR-7-style cookie jar, src/Http/Cookie/CookieCollection.php. Two code paths were wrong. On the inbound path, addFromResponse() created Cookie objects from Set-Cookie header strings without checking that the header's Domain attribute was related to the request host, so a responding server could insert cookies for arbitrary domains into the collection. On the outbound path, findMatchingCookies() stripped a leading dot from the cookie domain and then matched it against the request host with the regular expression '/' . preg_quote($domain, '/') . '$/', which is an unanchored suffix test: the pattern for 'example.com' also matches 'notexample.com', because nothing requires a dot boundary or an exact host match. The upstream fix adds an inbound domain-relationship check (exact equality, source domain ending in '.cookieDomain', or cookie domain ending in '.sourceDomain') and replaces the regex with explicit comparisons: $host === $domain || str_ends_with($host, ".{$domain}"), so only exact hosts and true subdomains match. A comment added in the diff notes that protection for public suffixes is not implemented, so the library still expects the caller to avoid sharing a jar across unrelated registrable domains. The assessed severity is CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N, with the high attack complexity and physical/positional prerequisite reflecting that the attacker cannot simply reach a server remotely but must control or compromise a host the client chooses to talk to, or otherwise influence which hostname the outbound request targets.
Know when Cakephp gets its next vulnerability
- Watch products and get an email when something new is published
- Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
No credit card · 7-day full trial
Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Attacker needs no auth (PR:N) but must control a suffix-adjacent/malicious host the client contacts (AC:H); cookie leak gives C:L and cookie injection gives I:L, no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
DescriptionCVE.org
CakePHP through 5.4.3 contains an improper cookie domain validation vulnerability in the Http Client CookieCollection that allows malicious servers to receive and plant cookies by abusing unanchored suffix matching. Attackers controlling a host such as one ending in a victim domain suffix, or sending Set-Cookie Domain values for unrelated hosts, can steal session cookies or inject cookies into shared client cookie jars.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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
The Xml class in CakePHP 2.1.x before 2.1.5 and 2.2.x before 2.2.1 allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files via X
The clientIp function in CakePHP 3.2.4 and earlier allows remote attackers to spoof their IP via the CLIENT-IP HTTP head
CakePHP 2.x and 3.x before 3.1.5 might allow remote attackers to bypass the CSRF protection mechanism via the _method pa
CakePHP is a development framework for PHP web apps. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely
SQL injection in the CakePHP PHP framework (versions prior to 4.5.12, 4.6.5, 5.1.9, 5.2.14, and 5.3.7) allows unauthenti
SQL injection in CakePHP's database layer allows attackers to inject arbitrary SQL when an application uses FunctionsBui
SQL injection in CakePHP 5.4.3 and earlier allows an attacker who can influence a collation name passed to the StringExp
SQL injection in CakePHP through 5.4.3 allows an attacker who can influence window-function query parameters to inject S
Authentication bypass in the CakePHP Authentication plugin's CookieAuthenticator (versions before 2.11.2, 3.0.0-3.3.6, a
Email header injection in CakePHP's Mailer component allows CRLF sequences embedded in custom header values to split SMT
An issue was discovered in SmtpTransport in CakePHP 3.7.6. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotel
Local file inclusion in CakePHP's View::_getElementFileName() allows remote attackers to include arbitrary PHP files fro
EUVD-2026-113796
GHSA-g3vg-xwg9-qrvh
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB