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High

Silverstripe GraphQL has DDOS Vulnerability due to lack of protection against recursive queries

  • Disclosed: 17.10.2023
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 10:22

Impact

An attacker could use a recursive graphql query to execute a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDOS attack) against a website. This mostly affects websites with publicly exposed graphql schemas.

If your Silverstripe CMS project does not expose a public facing graphql schema, a user account is required to trigger the DDOS attack. If your site is hosted behind a content delivery network (CDN), such as Imperva or CloudFlare, this may further mitigate the risk.

The fix includes some new configuration options which you might want to tweak for your project, based on your own requirements. See the documentation in the references for details.

Patches

Patched in 3.8.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.5, 4.3.4, 5.0.3

References

Reported by

Jason Nguyen from phew (https://phew.co.nz/)

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Composer package silverstripe/graphql >= 3.0.0, < 3.8.2, >= 4.0.0, < 4.1.3, >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.5, >= 4.3.0, < 4.3.4, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.3 3.8.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.5, 4.3.4, 5.0.3

References

CVSS score 7.5/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-400
Platform
Composer
Package
silverstripe/graphql
Disclosed
17.10.2023
Updated
11.10.2026 10:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-v23w-pppm-jh66 - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: silverstripe/graphql

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Composer package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

Total entries
8
First → latest
06.2021 05.2024
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • High 4
  • Medium 4

Disclosures per year

  1. silverstripe/graphql Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability
    High · 7.3 ghsa-wjg9-v8cf-f5q2 >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.3 2.0.3
  2. View permissions are bypassed for paginated lists of ORM data
    Medium · 5.3 CVE-2023-44401 >= 4.0.0, < 4.3.7, >= 5.0.0, < 5.1.3 4.3.7, 5.1.3
  3. Silverstripe GraphQL has DDOS Vulnerability due to lack of protection against recursive queries this entry
    High · 7.5 CVE-2023-40180 >= 3.0.0, < 3.8.2, >= 4.0.0, < 4.1.3, >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.5, >= 4.3.0, < 4.3.4, >= 5.0.0, < 5.0.3 3.8.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.5, 4.3.4, 5.0.3
  4. DDOS attack on graphql endpoints
    High · 7.5 CVE-2023-28104 >= 4.1.1, < 4.1.2, >= 4.2.2, < 4.2.3 4.1.2, 4.2.3
  5. Silverstripe has Incorrect Default Permissions
    Medium · 5.3 CVE-2020-6165 >= 3.2.0, < 3.2.4 3.2.4
  6. Silverstripe CSRF Protection Bypass via GraphQL
    High · 8.8 CVE-2019-12437 >= 2.0.0, < 2.0.5, >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.2 2.0.5, 3.1.2
  7. SilverStripe GraphQL Server permission checker not inherited by query subclass.
    Medium · 4.3 CVE-2021-28661 >= 3.0.0, < 3.5.2 3.5.2
  8. Authentication bypass in SilverStripe GraphQL
    Medium · 6.5 CVE-2020-26136 >= 3.0.0, < 3.5.0, >= 4.0.0-alpha1, < 4.0.0-alpha2 3.5.0, 4.0.0-alpha2

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