Summary
CSRF issue on preview pages in Bolt CMS
This has been fixed in Bolt 3.7.1
References
Related issue: https://github.com/bolt/bolt/pull/7853
Impact
Bolt CMS lacked CSRF protection in the preview generating endpoint. Previews are intended to be generated by the admins, developers, chief-editors, and editors, who are authorized to create content in the application. But due to lack of proper CSRF protection, unauthorized users could generate a preview.
A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones. Typical impact: state-changing actions performed as the victim without their consent.
CVE-2020-4040 has a CVSS score of 8.6 (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 (3.7.1); 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.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2020-4040? CVE-2020-4040 is a high-severity cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in bolt/bolt (composer), affecting versions < 3.7.1. It is fixed in 3.7.1. A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones.
- How severe is CVE-2020-4040? CVE-2020-4040 has a CVSS score of 8.6 (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 versions of bolt/bolt are affected by CVE-2020-4040? bolt/bolt (composer) versions < 3.7.1 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2020-4040? Yes. CVE-2020-4040 is fixed in 3.7.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2020-4040 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2020-4040 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-2020-4040 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-2020-4040? Upgrade
bolt/boltto 3.7.1 or later.