CVE-2025-11165 Code injection in dotCMS
Authenticated users with scripting privileges can bypass sandbox restrictions to execute arbitrary system commands on the server.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-11165?
CVE-2025-11165 is a critical code injection vulnerability in Dotcms Dotcms, published on 24 Feb 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A sandbox escape vulnerability exists in dotCMS’s Velocity scripting engine (VTools) that allows authenticated users with scripting privileges to bypass class and package restrictions enforced by SecureUberspectorImpl.
By dynamically modifying the Velocity engine’s runtime configuration and reinitializing its Uberspect, a malicious actor can remove the introspector.restrict.classes and introspector.restrict.packages protections.
Once these restrictions are cleared, the attacker can access arbitrary Java classes, including java.lang.Runtime, and execute arbitrary system commands under the privileges of the application process (e.g. dotCMS or Tomcat user).
Weakness: CWE-89
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-11165?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Dotcms Dotcms.
How do I fix CVE-2025-11165?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-11165 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and never evaluate templates, expressions or code built from user input. More about Code injection.
Is CVE-2025-11165 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-11165 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Dotcms Dotcms
Sources
Also known as GHSA-hwvv-m8xc-26x2.