CVE-2025-22609
Published: 24 January 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-22609 is a critical-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Coollabs Coolify. Its CVSS base score is 10.0 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Private Keys (T1552.004); ranked in the top 33.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Enforces approved authorizations to prevent authenticated users from attaching unauthorized private keys to servers, directly addressing the missing authorization flaw.
Applies least privilege to restrict users to only their own private keys and servers, mitigating unauthorized key attachments.
Requires explicit authorization decisions for accessing private keys as system resources, supporting ownership-based access controls.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Missing authorization allows unauthorized attachment and use of private keys (T1552.004), enabling SSH access to victim servers (T1021.004) for arbitrary command execution (T1059.004).
NVD Description
Coolify is an open-source and self-hostable tool for managing servers, applications, and databases. Prior to version 4.0.0-beta.361, the missing authorization allows any authenticated user to attach any existing private key on a coolify instance to his own server. If the…
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server configuration of IP / domain, port (most likely 22) and user (root) matches with the victim's server configuration, then the attacker can use the `Terminal` feature and execute arbitrary commands on the victim's server. Version 4.0.0-beta.361 fixes the issue.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-22609 is a critical missing authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) in Coolify, an open-source and self-hostable tool for managing servers, applications, and databases. Affecting versions prior to 4.0.0-beta.361, the flaw allows any authenticated user to attach any existing private key on a Coolify instance to their own server. The issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and was published on 2025-01-24.
An attacker with any level of authentication on the Coolify instance can exploit this by attaching a victim's private key to a server they control, provided the IP/domain, port (typically 22), and user (such as root) match the victim's server configuration. This enables the attacker to access the Terminal feature and execute arbitrary commands on the victim's server, potentially leading to full compromise.
The official GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-3w2c-jfr2-9pg9) confirms that updating to version 4.0.0-beta.361 resolves the issue by implementing proper authorization checks. Security practitioners should prioritize patching affected Coolify instances and review access controls for authenticated users managing private keys and servers.
Details
- CWE(s)