Overview
The CVE-2025-53481 pertains to a severe uncontrolled resource consumption flaw found in the IPInfo Extension of Wikimedia Foundation’s Mediawiki. This vulnerability opens up the potential for system compromise and data leakage. Given the widespread use of Mediawiki across various platforms, it is crucial to address this vulnerability promptly.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-53481
Severity: High (7.5 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Mediawiki – IPInfo Extension | 1.39.X before 1.39.13
Mediawiki – IPInfo Extension | 1.42.X before 1.42.7
Mediawiki – IPInfo Extension | 1.43.X before 1.43.2
How the Exploit Works
The uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the IPInfo extension of Mediawiki allows attackers to cause excessive resource allocation. This is achieved by sending specially crafted requests to the vulnerable application, which subsequently leads to the overconsumption of system resources. If left unchecked, this could lead to a denial of service state, potential system compromise, or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. In this case, a malicious actor could send a HTTP request with a crafted payload that exploits the vulnerability:
POST /mediawiki/ipinfo/ HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"ipinfo_request": "8.8.8.8",
"excessive_allocation": "1"*10000000
}In the above example, the “excessive_allocation” field is filled with a large string, leading to excessive resource allocation. Ensure to patch this vulnerability or use a WAF/IDS as temporary mitigation.