CodeIgniter up to 4.6.1 Image os command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in CodeIgniter up to 4.6.1. This affects an unknown part of the component Image Handler. Such manipulation leads to os command injection. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-54418. The attack may be launched remotely. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in CodeIgniter up to 4.6.1. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown code block of the component Image Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a os command injection vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-78. The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

CodeIgniter is a PHP full-stack web framework. A command injection vulnerability present in versions prior to 4.6.2 affects applications that use the ImageMagick handler for image processing (`imagick` as the image library) and either allow file uploads with user-controlled filenames and process uploaded images using the `resize()` method or use the `text()` method with user-controlled text content or options. An attacker can upload a file with a malicious filename containing shell metacharacters that get executed when the image is processed or provide malicious text content or options that get executed when adding text to images Users should upgrade to v4.6.2 or later to receive a patch. As a workaround, switch to the GD image handler (`gd`, the default handler), which is not affected by either vulnerability. For file upload scenarios, instead of using user-provided filenames, generate random names to eliminate the attack vector with `getRandomName()` when using the `move()` method, or use the `store()` method, which automatically generates safe filenames. For text operations, if one must use ImageMagick with user-controlled text, sanitize the input to only allow safe characters and validate/restrict text options.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-54418 since 07/22/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1202.

Upgrading to version 4.6.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch e18120bff1da691e1d15ffc1bf553ae7411762c0 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• CodeIgniter

Version

• 4.6.0
• 4.6.1

License

• open-source

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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