Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-49538

Adobe Coldfusion 2021 … 2025

Published
08 July 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.4
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.020 79th percentile
Risk Priority 59 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-49538 is a high-severity aka Blind XPath Injection (CWE-91) vulnerability in Adobe Coldfusion. Its CVSS base score is 7.4 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Content Injection (T1659); ranked in the top 21% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

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

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

ColdFusion versions 2025.2, 2023.14, 2021.20 and earlier are affected by an XML Injection vulnerability that could lead to arbitrary file system read. An attacker can exploit this issue by injecting crafted XML or XPath queries to access unauthorized files or…

more

lead to denial of service. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction, and attack must have access to shared secrets.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1659 Content Injection Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access and continuously communicate with victims by injecting malicious content into systems through online network traffic.
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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-53961Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2025-49545Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2025-30290Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2026-48324Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2010-2861Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2026-48319Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2026-48332Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2026-34619Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2025-61811Same product: Adobe Coldfusion
CVE-2025-54261Same product: Adobe Coldfusion

Affected Assets

adobe
coldfusion
2021, 2023, 2025

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Input validation directly stops unneutralized XML metacharacters from reaching the parser.

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 directly requires input neutralization and validation that eliminates XML injection 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.

finds

Security testing catches XML injection during development but does not itself implement the fix.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record injection attempts for detection but does not prevent the weakness.

finds

Monitoring can detect exploitation but provides no preventive control over XML handling.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and output encoding that directly prevent XML injection.

prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for defenses against injection flaws including XML.

prevents

Secure architecture principles reduce attack surface but do not prescribe XML-specific controls.

References