CVE-2026-106622 in ColdFusion
Summary
by MITRE • 10/14/2026
ColdFusion is affected by a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability that could result in privilege escalation. Exploitation of this issue does not require user interaction. Scope is changed.
Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/14/2026
The identified vulnerability represents a critical security flaw within Adobe ColdFusion, specifically categorized as a Server-Side Request Forgery or SSRF. This type of vulnerability occurs when an application accepts a URL or network connection input from the user and subsequently makes requests to that specified destination without proper validation. In this specific instance, the flaw allows an attacker to manipulate the server into making HTTP requests to internal resources that are otherwise inaccessible from the outside world. The severity of this issue is significantly heightened by its potential for privilege escalation, meaning that successful exploitation could allow a lower-privileged user or process to gain higher levels of access within the ColdFusion environment or even on the underlying operating system. This shift in scope indicates that the impact extends beyond simple data exfiltration from internal services and touches upon core administrative controls and security boundaries.
From a technical perspective, SSRF vulnerabilities typically arise when developers fail to enforce strict allow-lists for outbound connections or do not adequately sanitize input parameters used to construct network requests. An attacker can craft malicious payloads that direct the ColdFusion server to interact with local loopback addresses such as 127.0.0.1 or internal IP ranges, potentially accessing management interfaces of databases, cloud metadata services like AWS EC2 instance metadata, or other backend microservices running on the same network segment. Because exploitation does not require user interaction, this vulnerability can be triggered remotely by an unauthenticated attacker who discovers a vulnerable endpoint within the ColdFusion application logic. The lack of required user action makes it particularly dangerous in automated attack scenarios where threat actors scan for exploitable endpoints to gain initial footholds or escalate privileges without needing social engineering tactics.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe, as it compromises the integrity and confidentiality of the entire infrastructure hosting the ColdFusion application. By leveraging SSRF for privilege escalation, an attacker could potentially bypass authentication mechanisms, access sensitive configuration files, retrieve credentials stored in environment variables, or execute commands with elevated privileges depending on how the server processes these forged requests. This can lead to a complete compromise of the web application and potentially the host system if further exploitation chains are utilized. The change in scope suggests that previous assessments may have underestimated the blast radius of this flaw, recognizing now that it affects broader security domains than initially thought, including identity management and access control systems integrated with ColdFusion.
To mitigate this risk, immediate action is required to patch Adobe ColdFusion to the latest version provided by the vendor, which includes fixes for these SSRF weaknesses. In addition to applying patches, organizations should implement network-level controls such as firewall rules that restrict outbound connections from application servers to only necessary destinations and block access to internal metadata endpoints like 169.254.169.254 commonly used in cloud environments. Input validation must be rigorously enforced on all parameters that influence network requests, ensuring that only whitelisted domains or IP addresses are permitted. Furthermore, deploying a Web Application Firewall can help detect and block SSRF attempts by analyzing request patterns for anomalies indicative of internal resource access. Regular security audits and penetration testing should also be conducted to identify similar misconfigurations in other parts of the application stack.
This vulnerability aligns with Common Weakness Enumeration CWE-918, which defines Server-Side Request Forgery as a weakness where web applications retrieve data from remote servers without validating user-supplied input. It is also associated with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1557, specifically Adversary-in-the-Middle or Lateral Tool Transfer variants that leverage SSRF to move laterally within a network environment. Understanding these mappings helps in categorizing the threat correctly and applying appropriate defensive strategies recommended by industry standards for mitigating server-side request manipulation attacks.