Overview
The cybersecurity world has been hit with a recent discovery of a significant vulnerability, CVE-2025-48481, in the FreeScout self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox system. This vulnerability, which allows an attacker to activate and access blocked or deleted accounts, poses a significant risk to all users of FreeScout versions prior to 1.8.180. This vulnerability stands out due to its potential for system compromise and data leakage, granting malicious actors unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-48481
Severity: Critical (CVSS Score: 9.8)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
FreeScout | Versions prior to 1.8.180
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability, CVE-2025-48481, resides in the account activation process of FreeScout prior to version 1.8.180. Specifically, an attacker with an unactivated email invitation containing an invite_hash can exploit this process. The vulnerability allows the attacker to self-activate their account, even if it has been blocked or deleted. This is achieved by leveraging the invitation link from the email, which provides initial access to the account.
Conceptual Example Code
To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker might use an HTTP request similar to the following:
GET /activate-account?invite_hash=malicious_hash HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable-freescout.example.comIn this request, `malicious_hash` would be the invite_hash from a blocked or deleted account’s invitation email. By sending this request, the attacker could self-activate their account and gain unauthorized access to the FreeScout system.
Recommendations for Mitigation
Users of FreeScout are urged to immediately update their software to version 1.8.180 or later, in which this issue has been patched. In case the patch cannot be immediately applied, temporary mitigation can be achieved by using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to detect and block malicious attempts to exploit this vulnerability. However, these are merely stop-gap measures, and upgrading to a patched version of FreeScout remains the most effective solution to this critical security risk.