CVE-2025-66429
Path Traversal in Cpanel 110.0.0 – 126.0.37
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-66429 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Cpanel Cpanel. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 46% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — 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-2025-66429 is a directory traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) affecting cPanel versions 110 through 132, specifically within the Team Manager API. This flaw enables attackers to overwrite arbitrary files on the system, potentially leading to privilege escalation to the root user. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility, low attack complexity, and significant impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
An authenticated attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network without user interaction. By leveraging the directory traversal in the Team Manager API, they can overwrite critical files, achieving full root-level privilege escalation on the affected cPanel server.
Mitigation details are provided in cPanel's official advisories, including the changelog for version 126 at https://docs.cpanel.net/changelogs/126-change-log/ and general release notes at https://docs.cpanel.net/release-notes/release-notes/. Security practitioners should consult these resources for patching instructions and upgrade paths beyond version 132.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-202876
Vulnerability Data
An issue was discovered in cPanel 110 through 132. A directory traversal vulnerability within the Team Manager API allows for overwrite of an arbitrary file. This can allow for privilege escalation to the root user.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
—
V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.
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.
Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
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.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.