Concrete CmsApplication · Concretecms

CVE-2021-22954

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-02-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 9.0 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 cross-site request forgery vulnerability exists in Concrete CMS <v9 that could allow an attacker to make requests on behalf of other users.

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

A cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Concrete CMS versions prior to v9 allows remote attackers to trick authenticated users into unknowingly executing unwanted actions on the CMS, such as modifying content or settings, by embedding malicious requests into links or pages the user visits.

MitigationUpgrade Concrete CMS to version 9 or later to incorporate proper CSRF token validation and request origin verification.

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
Concrete CmsApplication
Affected:< 9.0

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 the installed Concrete CMS version
    Log into the CMS admin dashboard and navigate to the Dashboard > About page, or check the version file in the concrete directory if you have filesystem access
    Affected if The version displayed is any version prior to 9.0 (e.g., 8.5.x, 8.4.x, etc.)
  2. Locate the CSRF configuration settings
    Access the concrete/config directory and inspect the CSRF protection configuration files, typically named csrf.php or within the app configuration
    Affected if CSRF token validation is disabled, missing, or improperly configured in the configuration files
  3. Verify CSRF token validation on form submissions
    Submit a state-changing request (such as saving a page or modifying settings) without including a valid CSRF token in the request and observe whether the action is executed
    Affected if The action completes successfully without requiring a valid CSRF token, indicating token validation is not enforced
  4. Check the core CSRF token implementation
    Examine the concrete/src/Validation/CSRF directory for the token validation logic, if you have code access
    Affected if The token validation functions are missing, incomplete, or do not verify both the token and the request origin

Your environment is affected if the installed Concrete CMS version is below 9.0 and CSRF token validation is either disabled, missing, or not properly enforced on authenticated requests.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 9.0 or later
Fixed in 9.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Concrete CMS to version 9 or later to incorporate proper CSRF token validation and request origin verification.

Recommended fix High confidence

Concrete CMS 9.0 or later

  1. Download Concrete CMS version 9.0 or later from the official source (documentation.concretecms.org/display/AD10/Download+Concrete+CMS)
  2. Backup your current database and files before upgrading
  3. Follow the official upgrade instructions for Concrete CMS 9.0
  4. Test the upgrade in a staging environment before deploying to production
Caveat Major version upgrades from 8.x to 9.x may include breaking changes; review the Concrete CMS 9.0 release notes for migration requirements

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Concrete Cms Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,200
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,720.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-22954 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2021-22954 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