Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain authenticated Payload session
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ExploitInitiate external-URL upload to attacker redirect
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ExecutionServer forwards session cookie cross-origin
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ImpactCapture cookie and hijack account
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V14 - Data Protection Data exposure prevention
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Collection, Discovery The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires that the Payload deployment uses the external-URL upload retrieval feature (server-side fetch of a user-supplied file URL). The attacker must control (or influence) a destination that issues an HTTP(S) redirect to an attacker-chosen origin, and an authenticated Payload user (PR:L) must actively trigger retrieval of that URL (UI:A). Only cookies whose names match the configured cookiePrefix (the Payload session cookies) are at risk, and only when forwarded onto a cross-origin redirect hop. Limiting factors that reduce real-world risk: a valid authenticated session is required, the upload-from-URL capability must be in use, user interaction is needed to initiate the fetch, and the attacker must control the redirect target; deployments that implement a restrictive externalFileHeaderFilter already mitigate cookie forwarding. |
| Impact | This is a genuine but conditional information-exposure flaw (CWE-200) rated CVSS 4.0 7.2 (High). The vendor vector CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H tells a consistent story: although network-reachable, exploitation requires a present attack requirement (AT:P - an attacker-controlled HTTP redirect), low-privilege authentication (PR:L - a logged-in Payload user), and active user interaction (UI:A - that user must initiate the external-URL upload). These three gating factors make the vulnerability targeted rather than mass-exploitable. No EPSS score was provided in the input, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified; the CVE is NOT in CISA KEV, and no POC is referenced - so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis. The commit diff corroborates the description precisely: pre-patch, auth cookies matching the cookiePrefix were only trimmed when the URL started with 'http', and were re-attached across redirect hops without re-checking trust, which is the exact credential-forwarding behavior described. Net assessment: a real issue worth patching for any deployment that uses external-URL uploads, but not a drop-everything emergency given authentication, user-interaction, and attacker-redirect prerequisites; the VC:H/VI:H rating reflects that a leaked admin session can enable account takeover, not that the flaw is trivially reachable. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker stands up a web server that responds to a file request with an HTTP 3xx redirect to an attacker-controlled origin. The attacker then induces an authenticated Payload user to initiate an external-URL file upload pointing at that server; because the code re-attaches the user's session cookies across the untrusted redirect, the valid session cookie is delivered to the attacker's domain, enabling session hijack and account takeover. No public proof-of-concept is referenced in the available data. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 06, 2026
Authenticated external-URL upload retrieval in Payload CMS versions after 3.0.0 and before 3.90.0 can leak Payload session cookies to an unintended third-party origin: when a user triggers a server-side fetch of an attacker-influenced file URL, a cross-origin HTTP redirect is followed without re-verifying that the destination is trusted, so authentication data is forwarded to whoever controls the redirect target. Exploitation is conditional and requires an authenticated user (CVSS 4.0 PR:L and the independent 3.1 assessment both indicate PR:L, with UI:A/UI:R), use of the external-URL upload feature, and attacker influence over a redirecting endpoint; only cookies matching the configured cookiePrefix (the Payload session cookies) are exposed. There is no CISA KEV listing and no public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the issue is fixed in version 3.90.0.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade Payload to version 3.90.0, which validates that external file URLs are HTTP(S) only, resolves relative URLs against a trusted configured origin, re-validates every redirect hop, and only forwards cookiePrefix-matching cookies when the destination origin is verified as same-origin. The upgrade path is the official release at https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/releases/tag/v3.90.0 with the advisory at https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/security/advisories/GHSA-pj5h-5q6c-3pfx and the patch commit at https://github.com/payloadcms/payload/commit/ba5cf6ae20d27a2c15106cb37466419031f86e6d; if upgrading immediately is not possible, define an externalFileHeaderFilter that strips all cookie headers (and any Authorization headers) before the fetch is issued, accepting the trade-off that same-origin upload-from-URL requests will also lose their session context and may fail unless the filter re-adds credentials for known-trusted origins, and note that the pre-3.90.0 filter signature receives only the header map with no isSameOrigin context, so this workaround must be conservative. A stronger interim control is to disable or restrict the external-URL upload capability entirely (remove it from the uploads configuration or gate the endpoint to trusted administrators), which eliminates the exposure at the cost of removing legitimate remote-import functionality. Operators should also rotate any Payload session cookies that may have been transmitted to untrusted hosts, since stolen session cookies remain valid until expiry or logout.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 2 packages in npm, euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The flaw lives in Payload's upload subsystem, specifically packages/payload/src/uploads/getExternalFile.ts, which performs server-side retrieval of user-supplied file URLs during "upload from URL" operations. Pre-fix logic decided whether to forward request headers by a simple heuristic: URLs not starting with "http" were treated as same-server, so authentication cookies were sent untrimmed, and when a fetch returned a redirect the code blindly resolved the Location header (fileURL = new URL(location, fileURL)) and re-issued the request to the new destination without confirming that destination remained on a trusted origin. Because cookie trimming was based on a one-time same-origin assumption rather than the origin of each hop, a redirect could carry cookies bearing the configured cookiePrefix to an arbitrary host. This is an information-disclosure weakness (CWE-200) rather than a code-execution or memory-safety bug, and the adjacent impact on integrity is limited to whatever session abuse a stolen cookie enables. The upstream fix validates that file URLs use only http/https, establishes a trusted base origin via getRequestOrigin (falling back to the request Host), resolves relative URLs against that trusted base, re-parses every redirect Location with parseFileURL, and computes an isSameOrigin flag per hop so that prefixed cookies are only forwarded to the verified origin. It also extends UploadConfig.externalFileHeaderFilter to accept an ExternalFileHeaderFilterContext ({ isSameOrigin, url }) so integrators can make per-hop header decisions.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Network-reachable but the required attacker-controlled redirect maps to AC:H; the feature needs an authenticated user (PR:L) who must initiate the upload (UI:R); leaked session enables disclosure and account takeover (C:H/I:H), no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Payload is a free and open source headless content management system. In versions after 3.0.0 and before 3.90.0, authenticated external URL-based upload retrieval can forward authentication data to a redirected destination that was not verified as trusted, potentially exposing a valid session to an unintended recipient. This issue is fixed in version 3.90.0.
Technical POC Analysis
CWE-346 (Origin Validation Error), scored by the maintainer primarily as CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor).
Full technical POC analysis - root cause, step-by-step exploitation and patch breakdown - is part of the Pro and Business plans.
Executive ViewAI
Payload CMS deployments running versions newer than 3.0.0 and older than 3.90.0 can leak logged-in users' session cookies to an attacker-controlled web destination, creating a path to impersonate those users - including administrators and content editors - inside the CMS. Exploitation is targeted rather than opportunistic: it requires a logged-in user to interact with a crafted external-URL upload and an attacker to influence a redirecting endpoint, so broad mass exploitation is unlikely, but a single hijacked privileged session could enable unauthorized content changes, exposure of data held in the CMS, and follow-on access to connected integrations. Leadership should prioritize remediation because the CMS is typically a public-facing system of record for customer-facing content and often carries credentials and third-party connections whose compromise would be visible externally.
Apply vendor patch (upgrade to Payload CMS 3.90.0). Until the upgrade is complete: disable or tightly restrict the external-URL upload feature, block or log server-side cross-origin HTTP redirects to untrusted destinations, shorten session lifetimes and rotate session cookie secrets, and monitor outbound egress for fetches to unexpected third-party origins.
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
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
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Malformed multipart request bodies sent to Payload CMS versions 3.0.0 through 3.89.x and 4.0.0-canary.0 through 4.0.0-ca
API key disclosure in Payload CMS lets an authenticated user with ordinary read access to other users' authentication do
Authenticated users who can update an auth collection document in Payload CMS can change the password field on that docu
Payload CMS versions before 3.90.0 and canary versions before 4.0.0-canary.34 contain an authorization bypass in relatio
Unauthorized read access to stored form submissions and form email configuration in Payload CMS deployments running the
Payload CMS releases before 3.90.0 (and canary builds before 4.0.0-canary.34) expose an orderable reorder endpoint that
Payload CMS prior to 3.73.0 has a SQL injection vulnerability when querying structured data, enabling database compromis
SQL injection in Payload CMS 3.0.0 through before 3.88.0 (and 4.0.0-canary builds before 4.0.0-canary.27) allows remote
EUVD-2026-93507
GHSA-pj5h-5q6c-3pfx
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB