Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-43919

MediumPublic PoC

Published: 20 April 2025

Published
20 April 2025
Modified
28 April 2025
KEV Added
—
Patch
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CVSS Score v3.1 5.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0092 76.5th percentile
Risk Priority 12 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

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 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow (T1003.008); ranked in the top 23.5% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

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 TechniquesAI

T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
attack.mitre.org →
T1083 File and Directory Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file system.
attack.mitre.org →
T1114.001 Local Email Collection Collection
Adversaries may target user email on local systems to collect sensitive information.
attack.mitre.org →
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 →
Why these techniques?

Directory traversal in public-facing GNU Mailman endpoint enables unauthenticated arbitrary file reads (T1190), including /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow (T1003.008), facilitating file/directory discovery (T1083) and collection of email archives (.mbox) (T1114.001).

Affected Assets

gnu
mailman
2.1.1 — 2.1.39

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SI-10 Information Input Validation
addresses: CWE-22

Validates pathnames and filenames to prevent traversal outside intended directories.

References