dbcve.org
ColdfusionApplication · Adobe

CVE-2025-30281

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-04-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
97/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
ColdFusion versions 2023.12, 2021.18, 2025.0 and earlier are affected by an Improper Access Control vulnerability that could result in arbitrary code execution. A high-privileged attacker could leverage this vulnerability to access or modify sensitive data without proper authorization. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction, and scope is changed.

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

Adobe ColdFusion versions 2023.12, 2021.18, 2025.0 and earlier contain an Improper Access Control vulnerability that allows a high-privileged attacker to execute arbitrary code without user interaction. The vulnerability enables unauthorized access to sensitive data and modification of system resources due to insufficient authorization checks, with a changed scope indicating impact beyond the vulnerable component.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied patches (2023.13, 2021.19, 2025.1 or later) to address the access control weakness. As an interim measure, restrict administrative access to trusted personnel only and implement network segmentation to limit exposure.

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
ColdfusionApplication
Affected:= 2021= 2023= 2025

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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/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. Locate the ColdFusion installation directory
    Identify the ColdFusion root directory (commonly C:\ColdFusion2021, C:\ColdFusion2023, C:\ColdFusion2025 on Windows or /opt/coldfusion/... on Linux). Check for the existence of the ColdFusion installation.
    Affected if ColdFusion is installed on the system.
  2. Identify the installed ColdFusion version
    Locate the version file. On Windows, check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\ColdFusion\<Version>\InstallPath or open ColdFusion Administrator and go to the About page. On Linux, check /opt/coldfusion/<version>/lib/VERSION.txt or the version.properties file in the installation directory.
    Affected if The installed version cannot be determined or the version file is missing.
  3. Compare the installed version against affected ranges
    Compare the identified version number to the vulnerable ranges: ColdFusion 2021 versions up to and including 18.x (2021.18 and earlier), ColdFusion 2023 versions up to and including 12.x (2023.12 and earlier), and ColdFusion 2025 versions up to and including 5.0 (2025.0 and earlier). Note that version 2025.0 is the initial release of the 2025 product line.
    Affected if The installed version is 2021.18 or earlier, 2023.12 or earlier, or 2025.0 (the initial 2025 release).
  4. Verify administrative access exposure
    Since this vulnerability requires a high-privileged attacker, assess whether the ColdFusion Administrator interface (by default port 8500 or 8501) is exposed to untrusted networks or the internet. Check network firewall rules and ColdFusion's administrator security settings.
    Affected if The ColdFusion Administrator console is accessible from untrusted networks without proper network restrictions.

A system is affected if ColdFusion 2021 (version 18 or earlier), 2023 (version 12 or earlier), or 2025 (version 5.0) is installed, and the system is network-accessible to potential high-privileged attackers.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor-supplied patches (2023.13, 2021.19, 2025.1 or later) to address the access control weakness. As an interim measure, restrict administrative access to trusted personnel only and implement network segmentation to limit exposure.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

ColdFusion 2023: latest version (2023.13 or later); ColdFusion 2021: latest version (2021.19 or later); ColdFusion 2025: latest version (2025.1 or later)

  1. Navigate to the Adobe ColdFusion downloads page at helpx.adobe.com
  2. Locate the ColdFusion 2023, 2021, and 2025 download sections
  3. Download the latest available update for your installed version (versions newer than 2023.12 for ColdFusion 2023, newer than 2021.18 for ColdFusion 2021, and newer than 2025.0 for ColdFusion 2025)
  4. Backup your current ColdFusion installation and databases before applying the update
  5. Apply the update following Adobe's standard installation process
  6. Restart the ColdFusion server after the update is applied
  7. Verify the update was successful by checking the ColdFusion administrator console and confirming the new version number
Caveat Standard ColdFusion update; review release notes for any deprecated features or configuration changes that may affect custom code

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

Fix this in Coldfusion Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,540
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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-2025-30281 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