Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-25205 is a high-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information Through Data Queries (CWE-202) vulnerability in Audiobookshelf Audiobookshelf. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Exhaustion Flood (T1499.001); ranked in the top 10% 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 map to AC-23 (Data Mining Protection) and IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
Audiobookshelf, a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server, is affected by CVE-2025-25205 in versions starting from 2.17.0 and prior to 2.19.1. The vulnerability arises from a flaw in the authentication bypass logic, where unauthenticated requests can match certain unanchored regex patterns in the URL. This issue, published on 2025-02-12, carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H) and maps to CWEs 202 (sensitive data exposure), 287 (improper authentication), and 400 (uncontrolled resource consumption).
Unauthenticated attackers with network access can exploit this vulnerability by crafting malicious URLs containing substrings like "/api/items/1/cover" within a query parameter, such as ?r=/api/items/1/cover. This enables partial bypass of authentication, potentially disclosing otherwise protected data. In certain routes, the flaw can also cause server crashes if downstream code assumes an authenticated user object is present, leading to denial of service.
The vulnerability is addressed in Audiobookshelf version 2.19.1. Mitigation details are outlined in the GitHub security advisory (GHSA-pg8v-5jcv-wrvw), pull request #3584, and commits bf8407274e3ee300af1927ee660d078a7a801e1c and ec6537656925a43871b07cfee12c9f383844d224, with the affected authentication logic visible in server/Auth.js lines 17-41.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-4091
Vulnerability Data
Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server. Starting in version 2.17.0 and prior to version 2.19.1, a flaw in the authentication bypass logic allows unauthenticated requests to match certain unanchored regex patterns in the URL. Attackers can craft URLs…
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containing substrings like "/api/items/1/cover" in a query parameter (?r=/api/items/1/cover) to partially bypass authentication or trigger server crashes under certain routes. This could lead to information disclosure of otherwise protected data and, in some cases, a complete denial of service (server crash) if downstream code expects an authenticated user object. Version 2.19.1 contains a patch for the issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 8 hardening rules · 5 OS baselines
V6.4.4V6.5.4V6.5.5V6.5.7
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Mandates unique identification and authentication of organizational users before access, directly stopping improper authentication.
Requires unique identification and authentication of devices before establishing connections, preventing unauthenticated device claims.
Mandates unique identification and authentication of non-organizational users, directly addressing the weakness for external actors.
AC-23 directly requires mechanisms to protect against unauthorized data mining and inference from statistical queries that would expose sensitive information.
Manages authenticators with verification and secure distribution, reducing opportunities for improper authentication.
SC-5 directly limits the effects of resource-exhaustion events that constitute uncontrolled consumption.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
PR.AA-03 directly enforces authentication mechanisms that eliminate most improper-authentication defects, yet CWE-287 spans additional vectors (missing checks, flawed protocols, session handling) that one control does not fully close.
PR.AA-04 directly enables verification of identity assertions (mostly preventing CWE-287 in that scope) yet leaves many other authentication failure modes unaddressed (only partial prevention overall).
Least-privilege query permissions directly limit the data an attacker can request or infer.
Explicitly requires monitoring and maintaining resource capacity, directly addressing uncontrolled consumption to preserve availability.
Behavior analytics on query activity can detect inference attempts but does not prevent exposure at query time.
Continuous monitoring of computing resources can detect resource exhaustion but does not itself enforce allocation limits.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Requiring authentication methods whose strength matches the sensitivity of the data and mandating multi-factor authentication directly blocks attempts to access resources without proving identity.
Access control limits who can run queries that could expose sensitive information via inference.
Verifying user identity before issuing replacement credentials and forcing changes after compromise reduces the likelihood that authentication bypass can be achieved through stolen or weak credentials.
Granular access rights reduce the ability of users to craft inference queries.
Data masking prevents inference by obscuring sensitive values returned in query results.
Resource-utilization monitoring and alerting on bottlenecks or overloads limits the impact of denial-of-service or resource-exhaustion attacks.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
RHEL 7 (3 rules)
- V-204425 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using an empty password. prevents CWE-287
- V-204442 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
- V-204424 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230492 RHEL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
Ubuntu 22.04 (1 rule)
- V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
Ubuntu 24.04 (2 rules)
- V-270675 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS when booted must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
- V-270714 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must not allow accounts configured in Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287