Summary
Symfony Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability in the Web Profiler
All 2.0.X, 2.1.X, 2.2.X, 2.3.X, 2.4.X, and 2.5.X versions of the Symfony WebProfiler bundle are affected by this security issue.
This issue has been fixed in Symfony 2.3.19, 2.4.9, and 2.5.4. Note that no fixes are provided for Symfony 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 as they are not maintained anymore.
Description
The Symfony Web Profiler is a great development tool, but it should not be enabled on production servers. If it is enabled in production, it must be properly secured so that only authorized people have access to it. Developers must be very cautious about this as the Web Profiler gives many sensitive information about a Symfony project and any attackers can exploit many of them. Just to name a few sensitive information: user logins, user cookies, executed SQL statements, ...
That being said, the import/export feature of the web profiler is exploitable even if the Web Profiler is secured as the form to import a profiler is not protected against CSRF attacks. Combined with the fact that profiles are imported as a PHP serialized string, it makes your application vulnerable to code injection.
Resolution
As the import/export feature of the Web Profiler is not that useful, and because PHP serialize/unserialize functions have a long history of vulnerabilities, I decided to remove this feature from the Web interface and move it as CLI commands.
If you were relying on this feature, you now need to use the profiler:import and profiler:export Symfony commands provided by the WebProfiler bundle from the command line interface.
Those commands are not enabled by default and must be activated explicitly. For Symfony 2.4+, you can import them in your app/config.yml configuration file:
import:
- { resource: "%kernel.root_dir%/../vendor/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Bundle/WebProfilerBundle/Resources/config/commands.xml" }
For Symfony 2.3, you can use the following snippet of code in app/console:
$kernel = new AppKernel($env, $debug);
$application = new Application($kernel);
if ($kernel->getContainer()->has('profiler')) {
$profiler = $kernel->getContainer()->get('profiler');
$application->add(new ImportCommand($profiler));
$application->add(new ExportCommand($profiler));
}
$application->run($input);
At this point, I want to reiterate that you should never enable the Symfony Web Profiler on your production servers as this is a development tool. And if you need to enable it, double-check that it is properly secured.
The patch for this issue is available here: https://github.com/symfony/symfony/pull/11832
Impact
Untrusted input is evaluated as executable code within the application's runtime environment. Typical impact: arbitrary code execution within the application's privilege context.
CVE-2014-6072 has a CVSS score of 8.1 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (2.3.19, 2.4.9, 2.5.4); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Already deployed Kodem?
See it in your environmentNew to Kodem? Get a demo →Remediation advice
symfony/symfony to 2.3.19 or later; symfony/symfony to 2.4.9 or later; symfony/symfony to 2.5.4 or later; symfony/web-profiler-bundle to 2.3.19 or later; symfony/web-profiler-bundle to 2.4.9 or later; symfony/web-profiler-bundle to 2.5.4 or later
Kodem Kai can prioritize this vulnerability in your dependency tree and generate a fix recommendation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2014-6072? CVE-2014-6072 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in symfony/symfony (composer), affecting versions >= 2.0.0, < 2.3.19. It is fixed in 2.3.19, 2.4.9, 2.5.4. Untrusted input is evaluated as executable code within the application's runtime environment.
- How severe is CVE-2014-6072? CVE-2014-6072 has a CVSS score of 8.1 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which packages are affected by CVE-2014-6072?
symfony/symfony(composer) (versions >= 2.0.0, < 2.3.19)symfony/web-profiler-bundle(composer) (versions >= 2.0.0, < 2.3.19)
- Is there a fix for CVE-2014-6072? Yes. CVE-2014-6072 is fixed in 2.3.19, 2.4.9, 2.5.4. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2014-6072 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2014-6072 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2014-6072 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2014-6072?
- Upgrade
symfony/symfonyto 2.3.19 or later - Upgrade
symfony/symfonyto 2.4.9 or later - Upgrade
symfony/symfonyto 2.5.4 or later - Upgrade
symfony/web-profiler-bundleto 2.3.19 or later - Upgrade
symfony/web-profiler-bundleto 2.4.9 or later - Upgrade
symfony/web-profiler-bundleto 2.5.4 or later
- Upgrade