Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Craft CMS versions through 3.0.34 could expose secrets to an already authenticated administrator. By abusing template handling in site settings, an admin could make database credentials appear in the interface. This is mainly an insider, compromised-admin, or overly broad admin-access risk.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation where Craft CMS admin access is broad, shared, or internet-facing through weak authentication. The issue requires administrator privileges, but exposed database credentials can turn a CMS control-plane problem into a broader data-access incident.
Technical view
The issue is server-side template injection in Craft CMS Site Settings URI Format handling through 3.0.34. The cited description says authenticated administrators could cause configuration values such as database username and password to render in cleartext. The source bundle provides no CVSS, CWE, or vendor-fixed version details.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to Craft CMS installations through 3.0.34 where users with administrator rights can edit site settings. Risk increases if admin accounts are shared, weakly protected, or compromised, and if database credentials grant broad access beyond the application.
Exploitation context
The bundle says KEV is false and provides no evidence of active exploitation. A public GitHub issue documents the vulnerability concept and sensitive-data outcome. Treat exploit availability as limited to public demonstration evidence, not confirmed real-world abuse.
Researcher notes
Evidence is thin: the CVE description and public issue identify the vulnerable setting and sensitive configuration exposure, but the bundle lacks CVSS, CWE mapping, affected CPEs, and a specific fixed release. Avoid assuming unauthenticated exploitability or active exploitation.
Mitigation direction
- Identify Craft CMS installations and versions through 3.0.34.
- Review Craft CMS changelog and vendor guidance for the appropriate upgrade path.
- Upgrade affected systems to a supported, non-affected Craft CMS release.
- Restrict administrator access to trusted users with MFA enabled.
- Rotate database credentials if exposure is suspected or confirmed.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Craft CMS versions across production, staging, and backups.
- Confirm whether administrator accounts can edit Site Settings URI Format values.
- Review Site Settings for unexpected template-like expressions.
- Check audit logs for suspicious site-setting changes by administrators.
- Verify database credentials are not present in UI output, logs, or screenshots.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
Credential and access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2018-20465 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/phuctam/Server-Side-Template-Injection-in-CraftCMS-/issues/1CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/master/CHANGELOG-v3.mdCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.