Overview
CVE-2025-28961 is a high severity vulnerability that pertains to ‘deserialization of untrusted data’ in the Md Yeasin Ul Haider URL Shortener. This flaw, affecting versions up to and including 3.0.7, creates a potential pathway for object injection attacks. Such attacks can lead to a system’s compromise or unintended data leakage, which can have severe consequences for the affected entities. It’s a critical issue because URL Shorteners are extensively used across the internet for sharing links in a more manageable format, making a large number of users susceptible to potential threats.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-28961
Severity: Critical (9.8/10)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Md Yeasin Ul Haider URL Shortener | Up to and including 3.0.7
How the Exploit Works
The exploit works through the deserialization of untrusted data. This means that an attacker sends serialized (or structured) data that is untrusted, and the vulnerable system deserializes (or processes) it.
In the case of the URL Shortener, an attacker could potentially inject malicious objects into the serialized data, which the system then processes. Once the system processes this untrusted data, it can lead to harmful actions such as remote code execution or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability could be exploited. This example demonstrates a hypothetical HTTP request that an attacker might use to inject malicious objects into the system.
POST /shorten HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "long_url": "{serialized_malicious_object}" }In the above example, the attacker replaces the expected long_url value with a serialized malicious object. If the system is vulnerable, it would deserialize this untrusted data and potentially execute the malicious code or leak data.
Mitigation
The recommended mitigation is to apply the vendor patch as soon as it is available. In the interim, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can help in mitigating the vulnerability by detecting and blocking potential attacks. Regularly monitoring system logs and network traffic can also provide early detection of any abnormal activities.