Administrator RCE via unrestricted Twig application access
Published Mar 4, 2026 · Updated Mar 4, 2026
Server-side template injection in Craft CMS allows remote authenticated users with administrator access to execute arbitrary system commands. Twig email-template rendering exposes the application object without sandbox restrictions, so craft.app filesystem methods can write an attacker-controlled PHP script into a web-accessible directory. Exploitation requires an administrator account with allowAdminChanges enabled or access to the System Messages utility; the resulting web shell runs with the PHP process's privileges.
Summary
What happened
Server-side template injection in Craft CMS allows remote authenticated users with administrator access to execute arbitrary system commands. Twig email-template rendering exposes the application object without sandbox restrictions, so craft.app filesystem methods can write an attacker-controlled PHP script into a web-accessible directory. Exploitation requires an administrator account with allowAdminChanges enabled or access to the System Messages utility; the resulting web shell runs with the PHP process's privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-28697
- Published
- Mar 4, 2026
- Updated
- Mar 4, 2026
- Vendor
- Pixel & Tonic
- Product
- Craft CMS
- Classifications
- CWE-1336, T1505.003
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 4, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 4, 2026Record 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=>= 4.0.0-RC1, < 4.17.0-beta.1
- Affected versionversion=>= 5.0.0-RC1, < 5.9.0-beta.1
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
- Maintainer Twig filesystem-write 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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