Winter: Broken access control in `Cms\Controllers\Index` allows cross-template actions and unauthorized asset uploads

Summary

Winter CMS is a content management system built on the Laravel PHP framework. In versions up to and including 1.2.12, the CMS section's Theme Editor AJAX handlers did not enforce per-template-type permission checks, allowing a backend user with any single CMS permission to act on template types outside their authorized scope. The CMS controller gated access to the section as a whole using OR-logic across its five permissions, but individual handlers such as onSave(), onDelete(), and onDeleteTemplates() did not verify that the user held the specific permission for the requested template type, so a user with only cms.manage_pages could craft AJAX requests to delete layouts, modify partials, or read content files. Separately, the AssetList widget was registered for any user who passed the controller gate regardless of the cms.manage_assets permission, and its onUpload() handler omitted the theme-validation call present on the other mutating handlers, permitting unauthorized file uploads into the active theme's asset directory. Exploitation requires an authenticated backend account holding at least one of the CMS Theme Editor permissions. This issue is fixed in version 1.2.13.

Timeline

1. Aug 26, 2026, 5:50 PM UTCCVE published
2. Aug 29, 2026, 2:46 AM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Aug 29, 2026, 2:46 AM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• wintercms winter

  fixed in 1.2.13

• winter/wn-cms-modulePackagist

  fixed in 1.2.13

References 4