Vulnerability report

High confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2009-2265

FCKeditor Path Traversal

FCKeditor

Watch CVE-2009-2265 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.5 · High
Confidence
High
Exploit status
PoC available
EPSS
83.9%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2009-2265 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting FCKeditor. Multiple directory traversal vulnerabilities in FCKeditor before 2.6.4.1 allow remote attackers to create executable files in arbitrary...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is high. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

FCKeditor.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

FCKeditor Path Traversal

Multiple directory traversal vulnerabilities in FCKeditor before 2.6.4.1 allow remote attackers to create executable files in arbitrary directories via directory traversal sequences in the input to unspecified connector modules, as exploited in the wild for remote code execution in July 2009, related to the file browser and the editor/filemanager/connectors/ directory.

View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
05 Jul 2009
Exploitation Reported
05 Jul 2009
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
—

Tags

metasploit

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 15 Jul 2021

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

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Source Added
CVE First 2009-07-05 16:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Metasploit https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/windows/http/coldfusion_fckeditor.rb 28 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v2.0

7.5 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

EPSS

83.9%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE-22

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

coldfusion_fckeditor

metasploit · Created Unknown

Metasploit module for CVE-2009-2265

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 15:02 UTC

    Metasploit module available

    Exploit module available

  2. 15:02 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  3. 16:00 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  4. 16:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2009-2265

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2009-2265",
  "confidence": "High",
  "cvss_score": 7.5,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.83865,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": false,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}