CVE-2025-27822

High

Published: 07 March 2025

Published

07 March 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0021 42.6th percentile

Risk Priority 15 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-27822 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Backdropcms (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 42.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

Enforces approved authorizations, directly addressing the failure to honor the 'Masquerade as admin' permission and preventing unauthorized impersonation of administrative accounts.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

prevent

Implements least privilege to restrict 'Masquerade as user' permission to only necessary roles, blocking the prerequisite for exploiting the authorization bypass.

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Requires timely identification, reporting, and remediation of flaws like this Masquerade module vulnerability via patching to version 1.x-1.0.1 or later.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The vulnerability allows bypassing the 'Masquerade as admin' permission check, enabling low-privileged users to impersonate administrators and gain elevated access, which directly maps to exploitation for privilege escalation.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

An issue was discovered in the Masquerade module before 1.x-1.0.1 for Backdrop CMS. It allows people to temporarily switch to another user account. The module provides a "Masquerade as admin" permission to restrict people (who can masquerade) from switching to…

an account with administrative privileges. This permission is not always honored and may allow non-administrative users to masquerade as an administrator. This vulnerability is mitigated by the fact that an attacker must have a role with the "Masquerade as user" permission.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-27822 is a vulnerability in the Masquerade module for Backdrop CMS, affecting versions prior to 1.x-1.0.1. The issue stems from the module's failure to properly honor the "Masquerade as admin" permission, which is intended to prevent non-administrative users from switching to accounts with administrative privileges. This allows authorized users to temporarily impersonate other accounts, including administrators, and is classified as CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

An attacker must possess a role with the "Masquerade as user" permission to exploit this flaw, requiring low privileges (PR:L). The attack is feasible over the network (AV:N) without user interaction (UI:N), though it demands high attack complexity (AC:H). Successful exploitation enables the attacker to masquerade as an administrator, granting temporary access to elevated privileges and potentially compromising confidentiality, integrity, and availability at a high level (C:H/I:H/A:H).

The Backdrop CMS security advisory (backdrop-sa-contrib-2025-006) at https://backdropcms.org/security/backdrop-sa-contrib-2025-006 addresses this vulnerability, noting that updating to Masquerade module version 1.x-1.0.1 or later resolves the issue. The advisory highlights the prerequisite of the "Masquerade as user" permission as a partial mitigator.