CVE-2023-40028

HIGHNVD 4.97.8
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

“▲” beside the score: it is higher than NVD's CVSS score.

Score elevated to 7.8 because EPSS predicted 69% probability of exploitation within the next 30 days (99th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs) when EchelonGraph scored this CVE. NVD baseline CVSS 4.9 retained for reference. Confidence: see factors.

Triggered by: EPSS exploit prediction (continuous uplift above 30%)
Sources: EPSS, NVD CVSS v3
Elevated
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 69%
  • Public exploit or proof-of-concept code is available
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 69%CVSS: 4.9Exploit: Public PoCExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

Ghost is an open source content management system. Versions prior to 5.59.1 are subject to a vulnerability which allows authenticated users to upload files that are symlinks. This can be exploited to perform an arbitrary file read of any file on the host operating system. Site administrators can check for exploitation of this issue by looking for unknown symlinks within Ghost's content/ folder. Version 5.59.1 contains a fix for this issue. All users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

CVSS v3
4.9
EG Score
7.8HIGHhigh confidence
EG Risk
50
EG Risk 50/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity49% × 45%
Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 4.9 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.
Exploitation69% × 40%
FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at every mission impact level.
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
EPSS PROB
69%
EPSS %ILE
99th
KEV
Not listed

What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)

The EG score (7.8): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 7.8 is EPSS's lift toward 9.0 from its impact severity (EG Severity, CVSS 4.9 MEDIUM): a likelihood of exploitation, not impact.

EG Severity
4.9 MEDIUMCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.NVD CVSS v3 · CVSS v3.0 or v3.1
EG Likelihood
69% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-17). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
Confirmed exploitation
None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
EG Priority
SSVC Track at medium mission impactTrack at every mission impact level.CISA BOD 26-04: 60 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.Each input and its source: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at every mission impact level.

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)60 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

August 15, 2023

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (2)

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
npm(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
ghost—
  • every version up to 5.59.1: fixed in 5.59.1
—

Weakness Classification(2)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 5× in last 7d / 21× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 81 of 137 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 19 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 56 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-21 16:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  2. 2026-10-20 16:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  3. 2026-10-18 07:54 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-10-17 16:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  5. 2026-10-16 16:36 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  6. 2026-10-14 16:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  7. 2026-10-13 16:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  8. 2026-10-13 06:54 UTCOSV refresh
  9. 2026-10-12 18:21 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-10-11 21:47 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-10-10 19:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  12. 2026-10-09 20:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  13. 2026-10-07 23:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  14. 2026-10-06 15:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  15. 2026-10-03 14:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  16. 2026-10-01 19:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  17. 2026-09-30 16:28 UTCEG score recompute▲ 0.80
  18. 2026-09-30 15:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  19. 2026-09-26 15:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  20. 2026-09-24 14:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  21. 2026-09-23 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  22. 2026-09-23 02:32 UTCOSV refresh
  23. 2026-09-20 20:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  24. 2026-09-18 19:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  25. 2026-09-17 19:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
Show 56 more
  1. 2026-09-16 14:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  2. 2026-09-16 05:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  3. 2026-09-13 16:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  4. 2026-09-12 14:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  5. 2026-09-11 14:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  6. 2026-09-08 21:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  7. 2026-09-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  8. 2026-09-05 15:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  9. 2026-09-04 05:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  10. 2026-09-03 21:16 UTCOSV refresh
  11. 2026-09-02 14:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  12. 2026-09-01 13:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  13. 2026-08-30 19:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  14. 2026-08-30 01:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  15. 2026-08-28 21:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  16. 2026-08-27 14:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  17. 2026-08-26 14:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 69% · 99th percentile
  18. 2026-08-23 00:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 68% · 99th percentile
  19. 2026-08-21 23:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 68% · 99th percentile
  20. 2026-08-19 17:02 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 68% · 99th percentile
  21. 2026-08-18 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 68% · 99th percentile
  22. 2026-08-17 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 68% · 99th percentile
  23. 2026-08-17 10:25 UTCOSV refresh
  24. 2026-08-16 14:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 68% · 99th percentile
  25. 2026-08-16 02:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  26. 2026-08-15 01:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  27. 2026-08-13 21:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  28. 2026-08-12 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  29. 2026-08-11 13:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  30. 2026-08-08 16:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  31. 2026-08-07 16:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  32. 2026-08-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  33. 2026-08-05 19:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  34. 2026-08-02 04:35 UTCOSV refresh
  35. 2026-07-30 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  36. 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  37. 2026-07-28 15:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  38. 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  39. 2026-07-25 14:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  40. 2026-07-24 14:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  41. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  42. 2026-07-23 02:25 UTCEG score recompute▲ 2.10
  43. 2026-07-22 23:12 UTCEG score recompute
  44. 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  45. 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  46. 2026-07-20 17:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  47. 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  48. 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  49. 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  50. 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  51. 2026-07-15 12:49 UTCOSV refresh
  52. 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  53. 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  54. 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  55. 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile
  56. 2026-07-11 08:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 58% · 98th percentile

Publicly available exploits

(7 references)

Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Exploit-DB entry, 6 GitHub PoCs). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly.

  • Exploit-DBEDB-52409
    Published Aug 11, 2025

    Ghost CMS 5.59.1 - Arbitrary File Read

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCgodylockz/CVE-2023-40028
    Published Jan 20, 2025

    POC for CVE-2023-40028: Ghost CMS Arbitrary File Read

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCrvizx/CVE-2023-40028
    Published Dec 28, 2024

    CVE-2023-40028 PoC Exploit

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCrvzsec/CVE-2023-40028
    Published Dec 28, 2024

    CVE-2023-40028 PoC Exploit

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCmonke443/CVE-2023-40028
    Published Dec 21, 2024

    Arbitrary file read in Ghost-CMS allows an attacker to upload a malicious ZIP file with a symlink.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoC0xDTC/Ghost-5.58-Arbitrary-File-Read-CVE-2023-40028
    Published Dec 12, 2024

    CVE-2023-40028 affects Ghost, an open source content management system, where versions prior to 5.59.1 allow authenticated users to upload files that are symlinks. This can be exploited to perform an arbitrary file read of any file on the host operating system.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoC0xyassine/CVE-2023-40028
    Published Mar 23, 2024
    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2023-40028?
CVE-2023-40028 is a high-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on August 15, 2023. Ghost is an open source content management system. Versions prior to 5.59.1 are subject to a vulnerability which allows authenticated users to upload files that are symlinks. This can be exploited to perform an arbitrary file read of any file on the host operating system. Site administrators can…
When was the CVE record for CVE-2023-40028 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2023-40028 was published on August 15, 2023. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of November 21, 2024; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2023-40028 actively exploited?
CVE-2023-40028 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 69% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (99th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-40028?
CVE-2023-40028 has a CVSS v3 base score of 4.9 (NVD). EchelonGraph synthesises NVD + CISA KEV + FIRST EPSS + GHSA into a combined EG score of 7.8 (HIGH).
How do I remediate CVE-2023-40028?
A fix for CVE-2023-40028 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2023-40028

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