CVE-2025-54287VulnerabilityPublished 2 Oct 2025

CVE-2025-54287: Canonical LXD · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Template Engine

Affects Canonical LXDSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.1 High.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

7.1High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 31% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker requires privileges that provide basic capabilities that are typically limited to settings and resources owned by a single low-privileged user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges has the ability to access only non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High: There is a total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all information within the Vulnerable System being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact. For example, an attacker steals the administrator's password, or private encryption keys of a web server.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 2 Oct 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Canonical LXD	Affected =6.0 =5.21	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Organizations should immediately audit and restrict instance configuration permissions to trusted administrators only, minimizing the number of users who can create or modify snapshot templates. Monitoring and logging of snapshot creation activities should be enhanced to detect anomalous template patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. Although no official patches are linked yet, organizations must track Canonical's security advisories closely and apply updates as soon as they are released. In the interim, consider implementing host-based file access controls and container isolation mechanisms to limit the impact of arbitrary file reads. Employ network segmentation to reduce exposure of LXD management interfaces. Security teams should conduct penetration testing focused on template injection vectors within their LXD environments. Additionally, educating administrators about the risks of template injection and enforcing strict change management policies for container configurations will reduce attack surface. Finally, integrating runtime security tools that can detect suspicious template engine behavior may provide early warning of exploitation attempts.

Description

Template Injection in instance snapshot creation component in Canonical LXD (>= 4.0) allows an attacker with instance configuration permissions to read arbitrary files on the host system via specially crafted snapshot pattern templates using the Pongo2 template engine.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the confidentiality of host systems running Canonical LXD. Since LXD is widely used in cloud and containerized environments, unauthorized file disclosure could lead to leakage of sensitive data, including credentials, configuration files, or intellectual property. This could facilitate further lateral movement or privilege escalation attacks. The impact is particularly critical in sectors with stringent data protection requirements such as finance, healthcare, and government. Additionally, organizations relying on multi-tenant container infrastructures may face risks of cross-tenant data exposure. The ease of exploitation without user interaction or additional privileges beyond configuration access increases the threat level. Given the growing adoption of container technologies across Europe, the vulnerability could affect a broad range of enterprises and service providers. The absence of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the potential for rapid weaponization exists once exploit code becomes available.

CWE-1336Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Template Engine (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
The product uses a template engine to insert or process externally-influenced input, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements or syntax that can be interpreted as template expressions or other code directives when processed by the engine.
Architecture and Design
Choose a template engine that offers a sandbox or restricted mode, or at least limits the power of any available expressions, function calls, or commands.
Implementation
Use the template engine's sandbox or restricted mode, if available.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
Server Side Request Forgery Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards (opens in a new tab)
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.2.8 (opens in a new tab)
V5.2.5 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

github.com/canonical/lxd/security/advisories/GHSA-w2hg-2v4p-vmh6 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 9 Oct 2025, 11:18 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-1336

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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