CVE-2025-2746: Kentico Xperience CMS Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel Vulnerability

CVE-2025-2746 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in Kentico Xperience CMS. It allows an attacker to reach and control administrative objects without proper authentication by using an alternate path or channel. For organizations running this content management system, the risk is unauthorized administrative access that can lead to site takeover, content manipulation, or further compromise of connected systems.

Defenders should treat this as a high-priority issue for any internet-facing or internally exposed Xperience instance. Confirm all version, configuration, and fix details against the official vendor advisory before acting.

How it works

The weakness is classified as CWE-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel. In products of this class, authentication checks that protect sensitive administrative functions can be circumvented if an alternate route or channel exists that does not enforce the same controls.

An attacker who can reach the vulnerable CMS can exploit the alternate path to gain control of administrative objects. Once that control is obtained, the attacker can typically perform actions reserved for legitimate administrators. Exact request patterns, endpoints, or conditions are not detailed in the public summary; treat any unauthenticated access to admin-related functionality as suspicious and verify the precise mechanics only from the vendor advisory.

Am I affected? How to find it in your systems

Kentico Xperience CMS is commonly used for websites, portals, and digital experience platforms. It may run on-premises, in private clouds, or as hosted instances. Inventory every server, container, or cloud service that hosts Xperience.

• Search asset inventories, CMDB records, and software bill-of-materials for “Kentico” or “Xperience.”
• Inspect web server configurations, application pools, and deployment pipelines for Xperience installations.
• Review version and patch-level information against the vendor advisory; do not rely on assumed version ranges.
• Check for public or internal exposure of administrative interfaces and any custom modules that interact with admin objects.

Telemetry signs of exploitation may include unexpected unauthenticated requests that result in administrative actions, anomalous creation or modification of admin objects, or log entries showing access to protected functions without a prior successful login. Correlate web access logs, application logs, and authentication events. Because specific indicators are not published here, baseline normal admin activity and investigate deviations promptly.

How to remediate

Apply the vendor-supplied update or mitigation instructions for CVE-2025-2746 as the primary remediation. Follow the CISA-required action: apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for any cloud-hosted instances, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

• Test the update in a non-production environment first, then deploy to production with change control.
• After patching, re-verify that administrative objects can no longer be reached via unauthenticated or alternate paths.
• Harden remaining authentication surfaces: enforce strong admin credentials, multi-factor authentication where supported, and least-privilege roles.
• Remove or disable any unused administrative modules or alternate entry points identified during inventory.

Document the remediation and retain evidence of the applied fix for audit and compliance purposes.

If you can't patch immediately

Until the vendor update can be applied, reduce exposure with compensating controls tailored to authentication-bypass risks in CMS platforms.

• Segment the CMS hosts so that administrative interfaces are reachable only from trusted management networks or jump hosts.
• Place a web application firewall or reverse proxy in front of the CMS and block or challenge unauthenticated requests to administrative paths; tune rules carefully to avoid breaking legitimate traffic.
• Disable or restrict any non-essential features, modules, or alternate channels that interact with administrative objects if the product configuration allows it.
• Increase monitoring: alert on any access to admin objects that lacks a corresponding authenticated session, and retain full request logs for forensic review.
• If the instance is cloud-hosted, apply the relevant BOD 22-01 cloud guidance and consider temporary isolation or traffic filtering at the cloud edge.

These measures lower risk but do not eliminate it; schedule the permanent fix as soon as possible.

If your data may have been exposed

Actively exploited authentication-bypass vulnerabilities can lead to full administrative control and subsequent data exposure or secondary compromise. If you have evidence of exploitation or cannot rule it out, treat the incident as a potential breach: isolate affected systems, preserve logs, and begin forensic analysis. Known ransomware use of this CVE is not documented. As a quick check for personal or organizational email addresses that may appear in known breach data sets, you can run a free exposure scan of your email.