Vulnerability report

Active exploitation observed Confirmed confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2025-48828

vBulletin

vBulletin · 6.0.3

Watch CVE-2025-48828 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.0 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Observed in sensors
EPSS
57.6%
First observed
27 Jun 2026
Last observed
01 Oct 2026

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2025-48828 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting vBulletin. Certain vBulletin versions might allow attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code by abusing Template Conditionals in the template engine. By...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian sensors observed exploitation attempts with confirmed confidence. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

vBulletin 6.0.3.

What should we do?

Patch immediately, validate internet-facing exposure, and monitor for matching requests.

Overview

vBulletin

Certain vBulletin versions might allow attackers to execute arbitrary PHP code by abusing Template Conditionals in the template engine.

By crafting template code in an alternative PHP function invocation syntax, such as the "var_dump"("test") syntax, attackers can bypass security checks and execute arbitrary PHP code, as exploited in the wild in May 2025.

vBulletin Affected
vBulletin
6.0.3
Published
27 May 2025
Exploitation Reported
27 May 2025
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

php nuclei_scanner

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.

Exploited in the wild

CVE

Recorded 27 May 2025

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Active exploitation observed

Previdian sensor

First observed 27 Jun 2026

Previdian first observed exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability in our honeypot sensors.

Proof of concept available

Nuclei Templates

Recorded 12 Jun 2026

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.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
Previdian First 2025-05-27 12:00 UTC
CVE 2026-06-03 10:06 UTC

Operational indicators for this CVE are listed under Detection.

Sensor telemetry

First-party evidence of exploitation activity

Previdian sensors recorded exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability. The cards and chart show volume, unique attackers, and daily activity.

13

Attempts observed

11

Unique attacker IPs

7

Attacker countries

BG · CH · FR · JP · NL · US · YE

10

Sensors observed

CVE-2025-48828 exploitation attempts over the last 88 days

Daily events observed by Previdian sensors

Updated 13 Oct 2026

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18 Jul 5 Aug 23 Aug 10 Sep 13 Oct

First observed 27 Jun 2026 · Last observed 01 Oct 2026

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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
1
5
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 →

Attacker IP Indicators

Attacker IP indicators observed · available in Pro and Enterprise.

Sensor-derived attacker IP indicators are available to Pro and Enterprise accounts under Detection and through the Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2025/CVE-2025-48828.yaml 04 Jun 2026

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.0 Critical

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

57.6%

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

Weaknesses

Improper Protection of Alternate Path CWE-424

Potential Proof of Concepts

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

vBulletin replaceAdTemplate - Remote Code Execution

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 10:19 UTC

    Indicators of compromise added (18)

    Indicators of compromise recorded

  2. 10:19 UTC

    Observed by Previdian sensors

    Evidence-backed exploitation signal

  3. 14:21 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  4. 04:30 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  5. 10:06 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  6. 12:00 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  7. 00:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  8. 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-2025-48828

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2025-48828",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.0,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.5764,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": true
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 13, "sensors": 10 }
}