Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 1 Feb 2022.
OctoberApplication · Octobercms

CVE-2021-32648

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-08-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.1.5 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
octobercms in a CMS platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. In affected versions of the october/system package an attacker can request an account password reset and then gain access to the account using a specially crafted request. The issue has been patched in Build 472 and v1.1.5.

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

OctoberCMS contains a password reset bypass vulnerability in the october/system package where an attacker can request a password reset for any account and then use a specially crafted request to gain unauthorized access to that account, achieving full account takeover.

MitigationUpgrade the october/system package to Build 472, v1.1.5, or later to patch the vulnerability.

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
OctoberApplication
Affected:>= 1.1.1, < 1.1.5= 1.0.471

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
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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. Locate the installed OctoberCMS version
    Check the version.php file in the core installation directory (typically /vendor/october/system or the root version file), or access the backend admin panel and look under Settings > Updates > Version to view the installed build number.
    Affected if The installed version equals 1.0.471, or is 1.1.1 through 1.1.4 (any version >= 1.1.1 but < 1.1.5).
  2. Check composer lock for october/system package version
    Open the composer.lock file in the OctoberCMS root directory and search for the 'october/system' package entry to see the exact installed version number.
    Affected if The october/system package version matches 1.0.471 or falls between 1.1.1 and 1.1.4.
  3. Verify the Build number in the application
    Access the backend and navigate to the about section, or inspect the bootstrap/app.php or config/cms.php file for the 'app.build' or version identifier.
    Affected if The build number is 471 (which corresponds to version 1.0.471).

If the installed OctoberCMS version is exactly 1.0.471 or falls within the range 1.1.1 to 1.1.4, the password reset mechanism is vulnerable and the environment is affected.

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 1.1.5 or later
Fixed in 1.1.5
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade the october/system package to Build 472, v1.1.5, or later to patch the vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

v1.1.5 or Build 472 (or latest stable release)

  1. Identify your current October CMS version by checking the version file or admin panel
  2. Backup your database and all files before proceeding with the upgrade
  3. Upgrade October CMS to v1.1.5 or Build 472 or later (preferably the latest stable release)
  4. Clear any cached configuration after upgrade (php artisan cache:clear)
  5. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the version number
  6. Test the password reset functionality to confirm the vulnerability is patched
Caveat Always backup your site and test upgrades in a staging environment before deploying to production

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

Fix this in October Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,570
Get it fixed fast

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,512.

Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-32648 — 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-2021-32648 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