Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-43919

Path Traversal in Gnu Mailman 2.1.1 – 2.1.39

Public PoCPath Traversal
Published
20 April 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.013 69th percentile
Risk Priority 49 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-43919 is a medium-severity Path Traversal: '../filedir' (CWE-24) vulnerability in Gnu Mailman. Its CVSS base score is 5.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 31% 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-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

GNU Mailman 2.1.39, as bundled in cPanel (and WHM), allows unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files via ../ directory traversal at /mailman/private/mailman (aka the private archive authentication endpoint) via the username parameter. NOTE: multiple third parties report that they are…

more

unable to reproduce this, regardless of whether cPanel or WHM is used.

CWE(s)
CWE-24CWE-22

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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 →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-45582Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2022-41352Same product class: email / collaboration
CVE-2022-27925Same product class: email / collaboration
CVE-2021-27065Same product class: email / collaboration
CVE-2022-37042Same product class: email / collaboration
CVE-2023-7207Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2025-69194Same vendor: Gnu
CVE-2024-33535Same product class: email / collaboration
CVE-2024-8409Shared CWE-22, CWE-24
CVE-2023-20166Shared CWE-22, CWE-24

Affected Assets

gnu
mailman
2.1.1 — 2.1.39

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Input validation directly neutralizes '../' sequences in externally-supplied pathnames before they are resolved.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.

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.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and path sanitization that prevent ../ traversal.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.

PR.AA-05 none match
prevents

PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.

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.

A.8.28 Secure coding mostly match
prevents

Secure coding standards require neutralizing ../ sequences and canonicalizing paths before file operations.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches path-traversal flaws before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path canonicalization that directly block ../ traversal.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for controls against path traversal in file-handling functions.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles reduce attack surface but do not prescribe the specific coding fix.

A.8.3 Information access restriction partial match
mitigates

Information access restriction limits which files can be reached, mitigating impact of traversal.

References