Instance creation via cross-site JSON form submission
Published Oct 2, 2025 · Updated Oct 2, 2025
CSRF in Canonical LXD-UI on affected Linux releases allows remote attackers to create and start instances through a victim's browser. The LXD API parses text/plain and application/x-www-form-urlencoded request bodies as JSON, allowing a cross-site HTML form to submit an authenticated instance-creation request. Exploitation requires a victim who is connected with client certificate authentication, can create instances in the targeted project, and visits an attacker-controlled page; cloud-init can then execute commands inside a created container.
Summary
What happened
CSRF in Canonical LXD-UI on affected Linux releases allows remote attackers to create and start instances through a victim's browser. The LXD API parses text/plain and application/x-www-form-urlencoded request bodies as JSON, allowing a cross-site HTML form to submit an authenticated instance-creation request. Exploitation requires a victim who is connected with client certificate authentication, can create instances in the targeted project, and visits an attacker-controlled page; cloud-init can then execute commands inside a created container.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-54286
- Published
- Oct 2, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 2, 2025
- Vendor
- Canonical
- Product
- LXD
- Classifications
- CWE-352, CAPEC-62, T1189
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 2, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 2, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.0 <5.0.5
- Affected versionversion=5.21 <5.21.4
- Affected versionversion=6.0 <6.5
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Canonical HTML form proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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