CVE-2025-24963

Medium

Published: 04 February 2025

Published

04 February 2025

Modified

31 December 2025

KEV Added

—

Patch

—

CVSS Score 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS Score 0.2364 96.0th percentile

Risk Priority 26 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-24963 is a medium-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Vitest.Dev Vitest. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 4.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly mitigates the path traversal vulnerability by requiring timely patching to Vitest versions 2.1.9 or 3.0.4 as specified in the advisory.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Prevents exploitation of the path traversal in the __screenshot-error handler by enforcing validation of file path inputs to block arbitrary file access.

CM-7 Least Functionality partial match

prevent

Limits exposure of the vulnerable browser mode HTTP server by restricting unnecessary network exposure features like browser.api.host: true to essential functionality only.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1005 Data from Local System Collection

Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Path traversal in exposed browser mode HTTP server enables remote exploitation of public-facing application (T1190) to read arbitrary local files (T1005).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

Vitest is a testing framework powered by Vite. The `__screenshot-error` handler on the browser mode HTTP server that responds any file on the file system. Especially if the server is exposed on the network by `browser.api.host: true`, an attacker can…

send a request to that handler from remote to get the content of arbitrary files.This `__screenshot-error` handler on the browser mode HTTP server responds any file on the file system. This code was added by commit `2d62051`. Users explicitly exposing the browser mode server to the network by `browser.api.host: true` may get any files exposed. This issue has been addressed in versions 2.1.9 and 3.0.4. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-24963 is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) in Vitest, a Vite-powered testing framework. The issue affects the browser mode HTTP server, specifically the `__screenshot-error` handler, which responds with the contents of arbitrary files on the file system. This flaw was introduced by commit `2d62051` in the `packages/browser/src/node/plugin.ts` file and impacts users running Vitest in browser mode.

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability remotely if the browser mode server is explicitly exposed on the network via the `browser.api.host: true` configuration. By sending a crafted request to the `__screenshot-error` handler, the attacker can read the contents of any file accessible to the server process, achieving high confidentiality impact with no privileges required, though exploitation requires high attack complexity. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.9 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N).

The Vitest security advisory (GHSA-8gvc-j273-4wm5) confirms the issue has been addressed in versions 2.1.9 and 3.0.4, advising users to upgrade immediately. No workarounds are available. Additional details are in the Vitest browser configuration documentation and the fixing commit.