CVE-2017-3188 | The dotCMS administration panel, versions 3.7.1 and earlier, "Push Publishing" feature in Enterprise Pro is vulnerable to path traversal

The dotCMS administration panel, versions 3.7.1 and earlier, "Push Publishing" feature in Enterprise Pro is vulnerable to path traversal. When "Bundle" tar.gz archives uploaded to the Push Publishing feature are decompressed, the filenames of its contents are not properly checked, allowing for writing files to arbitrary directories on the file system. These archives may be uploaded directly via the administrator panel, or using the CSRF vulnerability (CVE-2017-3187). An unauthenticated remote attacker may perform actions with the dotCMS administrator panel with the same permissions of a victim user or execute arbitrary system commands with the permissions of the user running the dotCMS application.

Published: 2018-07-24 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2017-3188 is rated Moderate Risk (56.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.79%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.11% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-3188

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 1.67% 2.79% +1.11%
2 2025-03-30 1.44% 1.67% +0.24%
3 2025-03-29 1.44%

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-3188

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]
4.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-3188

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-3188

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
dotcms dotcms <= 3.7.1 cpe:2.3:a:dotcms:dotcms:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-3188

URL Tags
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96616 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/168699 Third Party Advisory US Government Resource
https://doc.dotcms.com/security/SI-41 Vendor Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence