{"id":59502,"date":"2025-07-20T00:04:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T00:04:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-16T07:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:09:06","slug":"cve-2025-44177-directory-traversal-vulnerability-in-white-star-software-protop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-44177-directory-traversal-vulnerability-in-white-star-software-protop\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-44177: Directory Traversal Vulnerability in White Star Software Protop<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this post, we delve into a critical security vulnerability tagged CVE-2025-44177, that was discovered in White Star Software Protop version 4.4.2-2024-11-27. This directory traversal vulnerability exposes systems to potential unauthorized file access and data leakage, posing a significant threat to all users of the affected software. Given the widespread use of Protop, this vulnerability could have far-reaching implications and deserves the attention of all IT administrators, security professionals, and end-users alike.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-44177<br \/>\nSeverity: High (8.2 CVSS Score)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: None<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43192-critical-configuration-issue-in-macos-allowing-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71541\">Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3798164335\" 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>White Star Software Protop | 4.4.2-2024-11-27<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The CVE-2025-44177 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54443-critical-path-traversal-vulnerability-in-samsung-electronics-magicinfo-9-server\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"67943\">vulnerability leverages a directory traversal<\/a> flaw in the \/pt3upd\/ endpoint of the White Star Software Protop. This flaw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46835-high-risk-vulnerability-in-git-gui-allows-unauthorized-file-overwrite\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"67827\">allows an unauthenticated attacker to read arbitrary files<\/a> on the underlying operating system through encoded traversal sequences. Since no authorization is required, any attacker with knowledge of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49672-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-windows-routing-and-remote-access-service\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"67826\">vulnerability and network access<\/a> to the Protop server can exploit it, posing a significant security risk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4073703996\" 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>Here is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. In this hypothetical HTTP request, the attacker uses encoded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-44137-directory-traversal-vulnerability-in-maptiler-tileserver-php-v2-0\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71540\">directory traversal<\/a> sequences (`..%2F`) to access sensitive files outside of the intended directory:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">GET \/pt3upd\/..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd HTTP\/1.1\nHost: target.example.com<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>This request attempts to access the `\/etc\/passwd` file, which contains user <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6080-unauthorized-admin-account-creation-in-wpgym-wordpress-gym-management-system-plugin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80587\">account details on Unix-like systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation and Recommendations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>White Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5243-critical-security-vulnerability-in-smg-software-information-portal\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"67970\">Software has released a patch to address this vulnerability<\/a>. Users are strongly advised to update to the latest version of Protop as soon as possible. If immediate patching is not feasible, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used as a temporary mitigation strategy. These <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2022-43110-critical-unauthenticated-remote-system-configuration-vulnerability-in-voltronic-power-viewpower-powershield-netguard\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"83147\">systems can be configured<\/a> to block or alert on suspicious requests containing directory traversal sequences.<br \/>\nAs a best practice, users should also consider implementing a least privilege policy for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52950-unauthorized-access-exploitation-in-juniper-networks-security-director\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71542\">network access<\/a> to the Protop server, further reducing the potential attack surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview In this post, we delve into a critical security vulnerability tagged CVE-2025-44177, that was discovered in White Star Software Protop version 4.4.2-2024-11-27. This directory traversal vulnerability exposes systems to potential unauthorized file access and data leakage, posing a significant threat to all users of the affected software. Given the widespread use of Protop, this [&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":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[85],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","attack_vector-directory-traversal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59502","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=59502"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75684,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59502\/revisions\/75684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59502"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=59502"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=59502"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=59502"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=59502"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=59502"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=59502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}