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HIGH

CVE-2025-48866

ModSecurity has possible DoS vulnerability in sanitiseArg action

CVSS v3

7.5

HIGH

EPSS Score

0.8 %

exploit probability, as of 2026-10-19

CISA KEV

No

known exploited

Exploitation

poc

SSVC status

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Affected and fixed versions

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • modsecurityBitnamiall versions · fixed in 3.0.12
  • modsecurity2Bitnamiall versions · fixed in 2.9.10

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2025-48866 Red Hat Product Security84 products fixed · 6 known affected

    mod_security: ModSecurity Denial of Service Vulnerability

    mod_security-mlogc as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 · mod_security.src as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 · mod_security as a component of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

  • RHSA-2025:13775 Red Hat Product Security21 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: mod_security security update

  • RHSA-2025:13716 Red Hat Product Security21 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: mod_security security update

  • RHSA-2025:13670 Red Hat Product Security21 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: mod_security security update

  • RHSA-2025:12838 Red Hat Product Security21 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: mod_security security update

Full record on NVD

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.

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2025-06-02
Last Modified
2025-07-02

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-48866?

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.

Is CVE-2025-48866 actively exploited?

A proof-of-concept exploit exists for CVE-2025-48866, but active exploitation has not been confirmed at this time.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2025-48866?

CVE-2025-48866 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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