Vulnerability · Published Jun 2, 2025 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2025-48866ModSecurity has possible DoS vulnerability in sanitiseArg action

High 7.5

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in ModSecurity from owasp-modsecurity. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.9% (higher than 59% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.5High

Exploit odds (30 days)0.9%top 41.1% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

ModSecurity is an open source, cross platform web application firewall (WAF) engine for Apache, IIS and Nginx. Versions prior to 2.9.10 contain a denial of service vulnerability similar to GHSA-859r-vvv8-rm8r/CVE-2025-47947. The `sanitiseArg` (and `sanitizeArg` - this is the same action but an alias) is vulnerable to adding an excessive number of arguments, thereby leading to denial of service. Version 2.9.10 fixes the issue. As a workaround, avoid using rules that contain the `sanitiseArg` (or `sanitizeArg`) action.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
Debian:12	modsecurity-apache	2.9.7-1+deb12u1	DEBIAN-CVE-2025-48866
Debian:12	modsecurity-apache	2.9.7-1+deb12u1	DSA-5940-1
Debian:13	modsecurity-apache	2.9.10-1	DEBIAN-CVE-2025-48866
Debian:14	modsecurity-apache	2.9.10-1	DEBIAN-CVE-2025-48866
Rocky Linux:9	mod_security	0:2.9.6-2.el9_6.1	RLSA-2025:12838
Ubuntu:25.10	modsecurity-apache	no fix listed	UBUNTU-CVE-2025-48866

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
owasp-modsecurity	ModSecurity	< 2.9.10

Weakness: CWE-1050 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

In plain English

Official description

Affected packages & fixed versions

Affected products (as reported)

References