CVE-2025-31918: Critical Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Simple Business Directory Pro

Overview

In the realm of cybersecurity, the discovery of a new vulnerability is always a cause for concern. This blog post focuses on a recently identified vulnerability, CVE-2025-31918, that exists in Simple Business Directory Pro, a product of quantumcloud. This software vulnerability is of significant importance due to its potential impact on businesses that utilize the Simple Business Directory Pro software, posing a potential threat to their systems and sensitive data.
Incorrect Privilege Assignment, the underlying issue, allows for Privilege Escalation, essentially enabling lower privileged users to gain higher privileges that they normally wouldn’t have access to. This could potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage, making it a critical threat that must be immediately addressed.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-31918
Severity: Critical (9.8 CVSS Severity Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: If exploited successfully, this vulnerability can lead to potential system compromise or data leakage.

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Simple Business Directory Pro | All versions prior to 15.4.8

How the Exploit Works

The exploit leverages a flaw in the Simple Business Directory Pro’s permission assignment mechanism. In a normal scenario, users are assigned privileges based on their role. However, due to the identified vulnerability, malicious users can manipulate the system to escalate their privileges, allowing them access to features and data beyond their designated reach.

Conceptual Example Code

The following is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. It depicts a malicious HTTP request in which the attacker modifies their user role:

POST /changeUserRole HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"userID": "TargetUserID",
"newRole": "Administrator"
}

In this sample, the attacker changes their role to ‘Administrator’, thus gaining escalated privileges. It’s important to note that this is a conceptual example and the actual exploit might involve more complex steps.

Mitigation Measures

The official solution to address this vulnerability is to apply the vendor’s patch. Users are strongly advised to update their Simple Business Directory Pro software to version 15.4.9 or later. As a temporary mitigation measure, users can employ a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to detect and block the exploit attempts.