CVE-2026-48385: Adobe ColdFusion Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2026-48385 Overview

Adobe ColdFusion contains an OS Command Injection vulnerability [CWE-78] that enables a security feature bypass. The flaw affects ColdFusion 2023 (base through Update 22) and ColdFusion 2025 (base through Update 11). A low-privileged, network-based attacker can exploit the issue without user interaction to bypass security controls and gain unauthorized write access. The vulnerability carries a changed scope, meaning exploitation can impact resources beyond the vulnerable component. Adobe published the advisory on August 11, 2026 and released fixes referenced in bulletin APSB26-90.

Critical Impact
A low-privileged attacker can bypass ColdFusion security measures over the network to gain unauthorized write access to protected resources.

Affected Products

Adobe ColdFusion 2023 (base release through Update 22)
Adobe ColdFusion 2025 (base release through Update 11)
Deployments running unpatched ColdFusion application servers exposed to untrusted networks

Discovery Timeline

2026-08-11 - CVE-2026-48385 published to NVD
2026-08-11 - Adobe releases security bulletin APSB26-90 for ColdFusion
2026-08-13 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-48385

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of special elements passed to operating system commands within ColdFusion. When ColdFusion processes attacker-influenced input in a command context, shell metacharacters and separators are not properly sanitized. This allows an authenticated, low-privileged user to inject additional command elements that the underlying OS interprets and executes.

Adobe classifies the outcome as a security feature bypass leading to unauthorized write access. The changed scope indicates that the injected commands operate outside the authorization boundary of the ColdFusion component. Integrity impact is high while confidentiality and availability are not directly affected, consistent with an attacker leveraging write primitives against files or resources controlled by adjacent components.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient input sanitization on values flowing into OS command execution paths within ColdFusion administrative or runtime features. Adobe has not published exploitation specifics, but the CWE-78 classification and integrity-only impact profile indicate that command construction concatenates untrusted input into a shell-interpreted string rather than using safe argument passing.

Attack Vector

An attacker requires a low-privileged account on the ColdFusion server to reach the vulnerable code path over the network. Because scope is changed, the attacker can influence resources managed by a component other than ColdFusion itself. Successful exploitation grants unauthorized write access, which can be chained with other primitives to place attacker-controlled content on disk or modify configuration. No user interaction is required, and attack complexity is low. Detailed exploitation code is not publicly available at the time of this writing. Refer to the Adobe ColdFusion Security Advisory APSB26-90 for vendor-supplied technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-48385

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected child processes spawned by the ColdFusion Java process (coldfusion.exe, jrun.exe, or java executing cmd.exe, powershell.exe, /bin/sh, or /bin/bash)
New or modified files under ColdFusion web roots, cfusion/wwwroot, or scheduled task directories that do not correlate to administrator activity
Authenticated ColdFusion Administrator or API sessions from low-privileged accounts issuing requests to command-adjacent endpoints
Outbound network connections initiated by ColdFusion worker processes to unfamiliar hosts following administrative API calls

Detection Strategies

Alert on process lineage where the ColdFusion JVM spawns shell interpreters or living-off-the-land binaries such as certutil, bitsadmin, curl, or wget
Monitor ColdFusion access logs for authenticated requests containing shell metacharacters (;, |, &, `, $(, %0a) in parameter values
Correlate low-privileged ColdFusion logins with subsequent file writes to sensitive directories or configuration paths

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward ColdFusion application, administrator, and JVM logs to a centralized analytics platform for behavioral baselining
Enable file integrity monitoring on ColdFusion installation directories, web roots, and startup script locations
Track EPSS movement for CVE-2026-48385 and prioritize hosts that expose the ColdFusion Administrator interface to internal or external networks

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-48385

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the ColdFusion updates referenced in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB26-90 to all ColdFusion 2023 and ColdFusion 2025 instances
Inventory ColdFusion deployments using CPE data to confirm patch coverage across every update level from ColdFusion 2023 base through Update 22 and ColdFusion 2025 base through Update 11
Rotate credentials for low-privileged ColdFusion accounts and audit their recent activity for command-injection attempts
Restrict network exposure of the ColdFusion Administrator and internal APIs to trusted management networks only

Patch Information

Adobe addressed CVE-2026-48385 in the security updates listed under bulletin APSB26-90 for ColdFusion 2023 and ColdFusion 2025. Administrators should install the latest cumulative update for their major version and confirm the reported build after restart. See the Adobe ColdFusion Security Advisory for the exact update identifiers and install instructions.

Workarounds

Enforce ColdFusion lockdown guidance to reduce the attack surface exposed to low-privileged authenticated users
Run the ColdFusion service under a least-privileged OS account that cannot write to web roots or system directories
Place a web application firewall in front of ColdFusion to block requests containing shell metacharacters in authenticated administrative paths
Disable or firewall access to unused ColdFusion administrative endpoints until patches are applied

bash

# Verify installed ColdFusion version after patching (Linux)
cat /opt/coldfusion2025/cfusion/lib/version.properties

# Windows equivalent
type "C:\ColdFusion2025\cfusion\lib\version.properties"