CVE-2025-53889 | Directus missing permission checks for manual trigger Flows

Directus is a real-time API and App dashboard for managing SQL database content. Starting in version 9.12.0 and prior to version 11.9.0, Directus Flows with a manual trigger are not validating whether the user triggering the Flow has permissions to the items provided as payload to the Flow. Depending on what the Flow is set up to do this can lead to the Flow executing potential tasks on the attacker's behalf without authenticating. Bad actors could execute the manual trigger Flows without authentication, or access rights to the said collection(s) or item(s). Users with manual trigger Flows configured are impacted as these endpoints do not currently validate if the user has read access to `directus_flows` or to the relevant collection/items. The manual trigger Flows should have tighter security requirements as compared to webhook Flows where users are expected to perform do their own checks. Version 11.9.0 fixes the issue. As a workaround, implement permission checks for read access to Flows and read access to relevant collection/items.

Published: 2025-07-15 Last update: 2025-07-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-53889 is rated Moderate Risk (42.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.24%). 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-2025-53889

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 2026-05-10 0.06% 0.24% +0.19%
2 2025-07-20 0.04% 0.06% +0.01%
3 2025-07-15 0.04%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-53889

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 2.5 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-53889

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-53889

GHSA-7cvf-pxgp-42fc · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: npm — Directus' insufficient permission checks can enable unauthenticated users to manually trigger Flows

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-53889

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
monospace directus >= 9.12.0, < 11.9.0 cpe:2.3:a:monospace:directus:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2025-53889

cvelogic Threat Intelligence