CVE-2025-31122

Remediation/Mitigation Strategy for CVE-2025-31122

Vulnerability Description:

The Coding Hut website (scratch-coding-hut.github.io), in versions 1.0-beta3 and earlier, suffers from an authentication bypass vulnerability. The login link allows users to log in to arbitrary accounts by manipulating the username field. This effectively allows an attacker to impersonate any user on the system.

Severity:

  • CVSS Score: 9.0 (Critical)
  • Impact: Complete compromise of user accounts and potential access to sensitive data or privileged functions associated with those accounts. The attacker can perform actions as any user, including modifying data, deleting resources, or gaining administrative control depending on the compromised user’s permissions.

Known Exploit:

The exploit is straightforward:

  1. Navigate to the login page.
  2. Locate the username field.
  3. Replace the existing username value with the username of the target account.
  4. Submit the form. The attacker is now logged in as the target user without needing to know the correct password.

Remediation:

  1. Immediate Action: Disable or take offline the affected versions (1.0-beta3 and earlier) of the Coding Hut website until a patched version is deployed.

  2. Authentication Logic Review: Conduct a thorough review and rewrite of the authentication logic. The username field should not be the sole factor determining the account to log into. Password verification must be enforced.

  3. Implement Proper Authentication: Implement a secure authentication mechanism that relies on correct username and password validation. Consider using established and vetted authentication libraries and frameworks to avoid introducing further vulnerabilities.

  4. Input Validation: Implement robust input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data, particularly the username field. However, input validation is not a substitute for proper authentication mechanisms.

  5. Session Management: Ensure proper session management, including secure cookie handling, session timeouts, and protection against session hijacking and fixation attacks.

  6. Least Privilege: Review and enforce the principle of least privilege. Ensure that users only have the necessary permissions to perform their required tasks. This will limit the impact of a compromised account.

  7. Password Policies: Enforce strong password policies, including complexity requirements, password expiration, and prohibiting common or easily guessable passwords.

  8. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all users. This adds an extra layer of security that significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access, even if the password is compromised.

Mitigation (If Immediate Patching is Impossible):

If a patch cannot be deployed immediately, consider these temporary mitigation strategies:

  1. Network Segmentation: If possible, isolate the vulnerable system to a segmented network to limit the potential impact of a breach.

  2. Web Application Firewall (WAF) Rules: Deploy a WAF and create rules to detect and block requests that attempt to manipulate the username field in the login form. This is a temporary measure and should not be considered a permanent solution. Example WAF rule (implementation will vary depending on the WAF):

    • Block requests where the username field is modified to a value different from the username originally entered during initial login attempt (requires session tracking).

  3. Monitoring and Alerting: Implement increased monitoring and alerting for suspicious login activity, such as multiple failed login attempts or logins from unusual locations.

Testing and Validation:

  1. Penetration Testing: After applying the patch, conduct thorough penetration testing to verify that the vulnerability has been effectively remediated and that no new vulnerabilities have been introduced.
  2. Regression Testing: Perform regression testing to ensure that the patch does not introduce any unintended side effects or break existing functionality.
  3. Code Review: Conduct a thorough code review of the patched code to identify and address any remaining security concerns.

Communication:

  1. Inform Users: Communicate the vulnerability to all users of the Coding Hut website and advise them to change their passwords immediately after the patch is deployed. Consider including instructions on how to enable MFA, if implemented.
  2. Public Disclosure: After the patch has been deployed and tested, publicly disclose the vulnerability to the security community, including the CVE identifier (CVE-2025-31122) and a description of the fix.

Long-Term Prevention:

  1. Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC): Implement a Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC) that incorporates security considerations into all phases of the software development process.
  2. Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to identify and address potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
  3. Security Training: Provide regular security training to developers and other staff to raise awareness of security risks and best practices.

Assigner

Date

  • Published Date: 2025-03-31 16:58:19
  • Updated Date: 2025-03-31 17:15:43

More Details

CVE-2025-31122