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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2025-48866 json

ModSecurity has possible DoS vulnerability in sanitiseArg action

published last yr. modified 2mo ago also BIT-modsecurity-2025-48866 , BIT-modsecurity2-2025-48866 , EUVD-2025-16670

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 58%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • bitnami modsecurity 3.0.12
  • bitnami modsecurity2 2.9.10
  • owasp libmodsecurity 2.9.10
  • owasp modsecurity 2.9.10
  • owasp owasp_modsecurity 2.9.10
  • trustwave modsecurity 2.9.10
  • modsecurity-apache Debian 12 2.9.7-1+deb12u1
  • modsecurity-apache Debian 14, Debian 13 2.9.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-48866

  • modsecurity-apache Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2.7.7-2ubuntu0.1~esm2
  • modsecurity-apache Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.9.0-1ubuntu0.1~esm2
  • modsecurity-apache Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 2.9.2-1ubuntu0.1~esm2
  • modsecurity-apache Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 2.9.3-1ubuntu0.1+esm1
  • modsecurity-apache Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS 2.9.5-1ubuntu0.1~esm2
  • modsecurity-apache Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS 2.9.7-1ubuntu0.24.04.1~esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-48866

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • mod_security RHEL 9 2.9.6-2.el9_6.1
  • mod_security-mlogc RHEL 9 2.9.6-2.el9_6.1
  • mod_security RHEL 9.0 E4S 2.9.3-12.el9_0.2
  • mod_security-mlogc RHEL 9.0 E4S 2.9.3-12.el9_0.2
  • mod_security RHEL 9.2 E4S 2.9.6-1.el9_2.2
  • mod_security-mlogc RHEL 9.2 E4S 2.9.6-1.el9_2.2
  • mod_security RHEL 9.4 EUS 2.9.6-1.el9_4.2
  • mod_security-mlogc RHEL 9.4 EUS 2.9.6-1.el9_4.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2025:13716RHSA-2025:13775RHSA-2025:13670RHSA-2025:12838

  • apache2-mod_security2 SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS +1 more 2.9.2-150000.3.12.1
  • apache2-mod_security2 SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS +10 more 2.9.4-150400.3.9.1
  • apache2-mod_security2 SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 2.8.0-7.9.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:02052-1SUSE-SU-2025:02029-1SUSE-SU-2025:02028-1

  • apache2-mod_security2 openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.9.10-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:15197-1

  • mod_security Rocky Linux 9 2.9.6-2.el9_6.1

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2025:12838

Is CVE-2025-48866 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-48866 updated cvss 5.9

mod_security: ModSecurity Denial of Service Vulnerability

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 mod_security, mod_security-mlogc Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 mod_security, mod_security-mlogc Red Hat JBoss Core Services mod_security
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) mod_security 2.9.6-2.el9_6.1, mod_security-mlogc 2.9.6-2.el9_6.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:12838
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.9.0) mod_security 2.9.3-12.el9_0.2, mod_security-mlogc 2.9.3-12.el9_0.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:13716
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.9.2) mod_security 2.9.6-1.el9_2.2, mod_security-mlogc 2.9.6-1.el9_2.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:13775
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.9.4) mod_security 2.9.6-1.el9_4.2, mod_security-mlogc 2.9.6-1.el9_4.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:13670

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
last yr.

Exploit prediction

0.87% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 58% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/owasp-modsecurity/ModSecurity/security/advisories/GHSA-f82j-8pp7-cw2w referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
OSV 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami modsecurity
<3.0.12
3.0.12
bitnami modsecurity2
<2.9.10
2.9.10

Affected products

  • owasp-modsecurity ModSecurity

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-1050 Excessive Platform Resource Consumption within a Loop

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.