CVE-2025-25777: Unauthorized User Profile Access in Codeastro Bus Ticket Booking System

Overview

This blog post investigates a significant vulnerability, CVE-2025-25777, identified in Codeastro’s Bus Ticket Booking System v1.0. This vulnerability is a clear instance of Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR), a common yet often overlooked web security issue. The vulnerability potentially allows an unauthorized attacker to gain direct access to sensitive user profile data, which could lead to serious privacy breaches, including identity theft and fraud. As such, it’s a critical concern for any organization that uses the affected software and stores sensitive data.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-25777
Severity: High (8.0)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Unauthorized access to sensitive user profiles, leading to potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Codeastro Bus Ticket Booking System | v1.0

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability lies in the user ID parameter in the URL of the Codeastro Bus Ticket Booking System. By manipulating this user ID, an attacker can bypass the system’s authentication and authorization checks and gain access to other users’ profiles. This manipulation can happen when an attacker intercepts the URL during a user’s session and modifies the user ID. The system doesn’t verify the legitimacy of the request, leading to unauthorized access.

Conceptual Example Code

Here’s a hypothetical example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability. This is not actual attack code, but a conceptual illustration:

GET /user/profile?id=123 HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerablebusbooking.com

In the above HTTP request, an attacker could change the `id` parameter to any other user ID to access their profile:

GET /user/profile?id=456 HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerablebusbooking.com

In the manipulated request, the attacker attempts to access the profile of user with the ID ‘456’ instead of ‘123’. The system, due to the IDOR vulnerability, allows this unauthorized access, compromising the user’s data.

Mitigation Guidance

To mitigate this vulnerability, the most effective solution is to apply the patch provided by the vendor. If the patch isn’t immediately available or applicable, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as temporary mitigation. These solutions can detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability. However, they should be considered as interim measures until the vendor patch can be applied, as they may not provide complete protection against all possible exploits.