CVE-2026-48282 -- CVSS 10.0 Vulnerability Briefing
CVE-2026-48282 | CVSS 10.0 (Critical) | Exploit: PoC available
What Is It
CVE-2026-48282 is a critical path traversal vulnerability in Adobe ColdFusion versions 2025.9, 2023.20, and earlier that enables unauthenticated arbitrary code execution on affected servers.
Technical Detail
The flaw stems from improper restriction of pathname inputs within ColdFusion's file handling logic, allowing an attacker to traverse outside the intended directory boundary and access or write files in arbitrary locations on the host system. Because the vulnerability does not require user interaction and carries a changed scope designation under CVSS, a remote attacker can leverage this path traversal primitive to achieve code execution in the context of the ColdFusion service account, potentially affecting resources beyond the application itself. The CVSS score of 10.0 reflects the combination of network accessibility, no authentication requirement, no user interaction, and the cross-scope impact of successful exploitation.
Exploitation Status
A proof-of-concept exploit is publicly available as of this writing. This vulnerability is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, meaning active in-the-wild exploitation has not been formally confirmed by CISA. However, the availability of a PoC against a CVSS 10.0 unauthenticated RCE in a widely deployed enterprise application platform significantly shortens the window before opportunistic exploitation is observed. Organizations should treat this as an imminent threat rather than a theoretical one.
Who Is Targeting This
No specific threat actor attribution at this time. Neither confirmed nor reported threat actor associations have been established for this CVE as of July 07, 2026. Given the nature of the vulnerability and the historical targeting of ColdFusion by ransomware operators and state-sponsored actors, this situation should be monitored closely for emerging attribution.
What To Do
Organizations running Adobe ColdFusion should prioritize patching immediately. Adobe has released updates addressing this vulnerability; administrators should upgrade ColdFusion 2023.x installations to a version beyond 2023.20 and ColdFusion 2025.x installations to a version beyond 2025.9 as soon as possible. If patching cannot be completed immediately, restrict external network access to ColdFusion administrative interfaces and apply web application firewall rules to detect and block path traversal patterns such as sequences containing "../" or URL-encoded equivalents. Audit ColdFusion server logs for anomalous file access patterns, unexpected process spawning from the ColdFusion service, and outbound connections initiated by the application server process. Given the PoC availability and the severity of the vulnerability, a patch window exceeding 24 to 48 hours is not advisable for internet-facing deployments.