Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-27110

Trustwave Modsecurity 3.0.13

Public PoC
Published
25 February 2025
Modified
28 February 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 7.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0047 38th percentile
Risk Priority 43 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-27110 is a high-severity Encoding Error (CWE-172) vulnerability in Trustwave Modsecurity. Its CVSS base score is 7.9 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 38th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-15 (Information Output Filtering) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-27110 is a vulnerability in Libmodsecurity3 version 3.0.13, a core component of the ModSecurity v3 project that serves as an interface between ModSecurity Connectors and web traffic processing pipelines. The flaw causes the library to fail in decoding HTML entities that contain leading zeroes, stemming from an encoding error classified under CWE-172. This issue is specific to version 3.0.13 and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N).

Remote attackers can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low attack complexity, requiring no privileges, user interaction, or special conditions. Exploitation enables high integrity impact by preventing proper decoding of certain HTML entities, potentially allowing attackers to bypass ModSecurity's traditional web application firewall rules during traffic inspection.

The vulnerability is addressed in Libmodsecurity3 version 3.0.14, which includes a targeted fix. No known workarounds exist. Additional details are available in the ModSecurity GitHub issue (https://github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/issues/3340) and security advisory (https://github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/security/advisories/GHSA-42w7-rmv5-4x2j).

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Libmodsecurity is one component of the ModSecurity v3 project. The library codebase serves as an interface to ModSecurity Connectors taking in web traffic and applying traditional ModSecurity processing. A bug that exists only in Libmodsecurity3 version 3.0.13 means that, in…

more

3.0.13, Libmodsecurity3 can't decode encoded HTML entities if they contains leading zeroes. Version 3.0.14 contains a fix. No known workarounds are available.

CWE(s)
CWE-172NVD-CWE-noinfo

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information Stealth
Adversaries may attempt to make an executable or file difficult to discover or analyze by encrypting, encoding, or otherwise obfuscating its contents on the system or in transit.
attack.mitre.org →
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution
Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-46292Same product: Trustwave Modsecurity
CVE-2025-47947Same product: Trustwave Modsecurity
CVE-2023-24021Same product: Trustwave Modsecurity
CVE-2024-48909Shared CWE-172
CVE-2026-42926Shared CWE-172
CVE-2026-48784Shared CWE-172
CVE-2025-12758Shared CWE-172

Affected Assets

trustwave
modsecurity
3.0.13

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Input validation can reject or normalize improperly encoded data before it is processed.

SI-15 Information Output Filtering partial match

Output filtering enforces correct encoding or escaping of data leaving the system.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require correct data encoding to avoid injection and corruption flaws.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.28 Secure coding mostly match
degrades

Secure coding explicitly requires correct character encoding and output escaping to avoid CWE-172.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development can detect encoding flaws before deployment.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle includes input/output validation and encoding practices that reduce encoding errors.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can mandate proper encoding/decoding to prevent data corruption or injection.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles address data handling and transformation correctness.

References