Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-48388

Freescout ≤ 1.8.178

Published
29 May 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 7.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0034 26th percentile
Risk Priority 27 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-48388 is a high-severity CRLF Injection (CWE-93) vulnerability in Freescout Freescout. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Content Injection (T1659); ranked at the 26th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

FreeScout is a free self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox. Prior to version 1.8.178, the application performs insufficient validation of user-supplied data, which is used as arguments to string formatting functions. As a result, an attacker can pass a string…

more

containing special symbols (\r, \n, \t)to the application. This issue has been patched in version 1.8.178.

CWE(s)
CWE-93CWE-134

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1659 Content Injection Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access and continuously communicate with victims by injecting malicious content into systems through online network traffic.
attack.mitre.org →
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
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 →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-58163Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2026-32754Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2025-48389Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2025-54366Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2024-34698Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2024-34697Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2025-48489Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2026-40565Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2025-48487Same product: Freescout Freescout
CVE-2025-48485Same product: Freescout Freescout

Affected Assets

freescout
freescout
≤ 1.8.178

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)
  • V4.2.4

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and static analysis can discover format-string vulnerabilities before deployment.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Input validation directly stops untrusted data containing CRLF sequences from reaching the component that treats CRLF as a delimiter.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Secure development standards and tools can mandate use of static format strings or safe formatting APIs.

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 neutralization and validation to block CRLF injection.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification can discover existing format-string flaws but does not prevent their introduction.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect CRLF flaws but does not itself implement the neutralization.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates input validation and output encoding that directly prevents CRLF injection.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements include rules for neutralizing special characters such as CRLF in inputs.

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

Secure architecture principles encourage safe handling of untrusted data but do not prescribe specific CRLF controls.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly require neutralization of CRLF sequences, fully addressing this weakness.

References