CVE-2025-43566: Adobe ColdFusion Path Traversal Flaw

CVE-2025-43566 Overview

CVE-2025-43566 is a Path Traversal vulnerability affecting Adobe ColdFusion versions 2025.1, 2023.13, 2021.19 and earlier. This Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory (CWE-22) flaw enables attackers with high-level privileges to bypass security protections and gain unauthorized read access to the arbitrary file system. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely without requiring user interaction, and notably features a changed scope, meaning the impact extends beyond the vulnerable component itself.

Critical Impact

High-privileged attackers can leverage this path traversal vulnerability to read arbitrary files from the file system, potentially exposing sensitive configuration files, credentials, and confidential data stored on affected ColdFusion servers.

Affected Products

• Adobe ColdFusion 2025 (all versions through Update 1)
• Adobe ColdFusion 2023 (all versions through Update 13)
• Adobe ColdFusion 2021 (all versions through Update 19)

Discovery Timeline

• May 13, 2025 - CVE-2025-43566 published to NVD
• May 19, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-43566

Vulnerability Analysis

This path traversal vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker with elevated privileges to manipulate file path parameters and escape the intended directory restrictions within ColdFusion's file handling mechanisms. By crafting requests containing directory traversal sequences, an attacker can navigate outside the web root or designated file directories to access sensitive files elsewhere on the file system.

The changed scope designation indicates that while the vulnerable component is ColdFusion itself, successful exploitation impacts resources beyond the application's security boundary. This typically means the attacker can access files belonging to the operating system or other applications running on the same server.

Root Cause

The vulnerability stems from improper validation and sanitization of user-supplied file path inputs. ColdFusion fails to adequately restrict pathname resolution, allowing relative path components (such as ../ sequences) or other traversal techniques to escape the intended directory constraints. This represents a classic CWE-22 weakness where input containing special elements used in pathname resolution is not properly neutralized before being passed to file system operations.

Attack Vector

The attack can be executed remotely over the network without requiring user interaction. However, exploitation requires high-level privileges within the ColdFusion application, limiting the attack surface to scenarios where an attacker has already compromised or obtained legitimate administrative credentials.

An attacker would typically craft HTTP requests to ColdFusion endpoints that accept file path parameters, injecting traversal sequences to navigate to sensitive files such as configuration files, database connection strings, or system credentials. The read-only nature of this vulnerability means attackers can exfiltrate data but cannot directly modify files through this vector.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-43566

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual file access patterns in ColdFusion logs showing references to files outside expected directories
• HTTP requests containing path traversal sequences (../, ..%2f, %2e%2e/) targeting ColdFusion endpoints
• Anomalous access to sensitive system files (e.g., /etc/passwd, Windows configuration files) from the ColdFusion process
• Administrative session activity accessing file-related functionality with suspicious path parameters

Detection Strategies

• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block path traversal patterns in requests to ColdFusion servers
• Enable detailed logging for ColdFusion file operations and monitor for access attempts outside designated directories
• Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to identify abnormal file read operations by the ColdFusion process
• Configure intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for common path traversal encoding variants

Monitoring Recommendations

• Review ColdFusion application logs for requests containing encoded traversal sequences and unusual file path references
• Monitor privileged account activity within ColdFusion administrative interfaces for suspicious file access patterns
• Establish baseline file access behaviors and alert on deviations, particularly for sensitive system directories
• Correlate ColdFusion access logs with system file access auditing to identify unauthorized file reads

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-43566

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Adobe ColdFusion to the latest patched version immediately (ColdFusion 2025 Update 2 or later, ColdFusion 2023 Update 14 or later, ColdFusion 2021 Update 20 or later)
• Review and audit all accounts with administrative privileges in ColdFusion to ensure they are necessary and properly secured
• Implement network segmentation to limit access to ColdFusion administrative interfaces
• Enable enhanced logging and monitoring for file access operations until patching is complete

Patch Information

Adobe has released security updates addressing this vulnerability as documented in Adobe ColdFusion Security Advisory APSB25-52. Organizations should apply the appropriate update for their ColdFusion version:

• ColdFusion 2025: Update to version newer than Update 1
• ColdFusion 2023: Update to version newer than Update 13
• ColdFusion 2021: Update to version newer than Update 19

Workarounds

• Restrict network access to ColdFusion administrative interfaces using firewall rules to trusted IP addresses only
• Implement additional web application firewall rules to filter path traversal patterns in all requests to ColdFusion
• Review and reduce the number of accounts with administrative privileges to minimize the attack surface
• Consider deploying ColdFusion in a containerized environment with restricted file system access

# Example: Restrict ColdFusion admin access by IP using iptables
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8500 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8500 -j DROP

# Enable ColdFusion security logging in cfusion/lib/neo-security.xml
# Set securityLogLevel to "debug" for enhanced monitoring