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Play FrameworkApplication · Lightbend

CVE-2018-13864

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-07-17
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.6.15 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A directory traversal vulnerability has been found in the Assets controller in Play Framework 2.6.12 through 2.6.15 (fixed in 2.6.16) when running on Windows. It allows a remote attacker to download arbitrary files from the target server via specially crafted HTTP requests.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Directory traversal vulnerability in Play Framework's Assets controller on Windows (versions 2.6.12-2.6.15) allows remote attackers to download arbitrary files from the server via specially crafted HTTP requests containing path traversal sequences.

MitigationUpgrade Play Framework to version 2.6.16 or later, which contains the fix for this directory traversal vulnerability in the Assets controller.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Play FrameworkApplication
Affected:>= 2.6.12, <= 2.6.15

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Play Framework version
    Check your build.sbt or build.gradle file for the Play Framework dependency version (play or play-json version). Also check the play-core library version in your compiled dependencies.
    Affected if The version is >= 2.6.12 and <= 2.6.15
  2. Confirm Windows deployment
    Verify the operating system where the Play application is deployed and running. Check server OS via 'systeminfo' on Windows or 'uname -a' on Unix-based systems.
    Affected if The Play application runs on Windows OS (the vulnerability only affects Windows deployments)
  3. Verify Assets controller is in use
    Check your conf/routes file for lines referencing the Assets controller (e.g., GET /assets/*file controllers.Assets.versioned(path="/public", file: Asset))
    Affected if The Assets controller is mounted and serves static files via the routes configuration

You are affected if your Play Framework version is between 2.6.12 and 2.6.15, you are running on Windows, and you use the Assets controller to serve static files.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.6.15
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Play Framework to version 2.6.16 or later, which contains the fix for this directory traversal vulnerability in the Assets controller.

Fix this in Play Framework Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,720
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-13864 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data