CVE-2025-8838
Auth Bypass in Winterchens My-Site 2025-06-11
Raw vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/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:XCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2025-8838 is a medium-severity Improper Authentication (CWE-287) vulnerability in Winterchens My-Site. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique External Remote Services (T1133); ranked at the 43th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); 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 IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) and IA-3 (Device Identification and Authentication) — 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.
CVE-2025-8838 is an improper authentication vulnerability (CWE-287) in the WinterChenS my-site project, affecting commits up to 1f7525f15934d9d6a278de967f6ec9f1757738d8. The issue resides in the preHandle function within the /admin/ Backend Interface component, where manipulation of the uri argument bypasses authentication checks. This flaw carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and low complexity.
The vulnerability can be exploited remotely by unauthenticated attackers with no privileges required and no user interaction needed. Successful exploitation allows limited impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, potentially enabling unauthorized access to backend administrative functions through crafted URI manipulations. An exploit has been publicly disclosed, though its practical reliability remains in question.
Advisories from VulDB and GitHub issue #97 detail the report, with the project maintainer responding that testing the reported link results in an automatic redirect to the login page, suggesting the issue may not function as claimed. As my-site employs a rolling release model for continuous delivery, no specific affected or patched versions are available; practitioners should monitor the repository for updates.
Notable context includes ongoing doubt about the vulnerability's validity, as confirmed by the maintainer's reproduction attempts, with no evidence of real-world exploitation reported to date.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-24136
Vulnerability Data
A vulnerability has been found in WinterChenS my-site up to 1f7525f15934d9d6a278de967f6ec9f1757738d8. This vulnerability affects the function preHandle of the file /admin/ of the component Backend Interface. The manipulation of the argument uri leads to improper authentication. The attack can be…
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initiated remotely. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The real existence of this vulnerability is still doubted at the moment. This product is using a rolling release to provide continious delivery. Therefore, no version details for affected nor updated releases are available. The code maintainer responded to the issue that "[he] tried it, and using this link automatically redirects to the login page."
- 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.
Manages authenticators with verification and secure distribution, reducing opportunities for improper authentication.
Enforces access only after approved authorizations, which presupposes correct authentication has occurred.
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).
PR.AA-01 supplies and governs credentials/tokens that authentication relies on, removing some weak-credential cases, yet leaves verification logic, missing checks, and protocol flaws untouched.
PR.AA-02 ensures valid enrollment and unique credential binding, which reduces some improper-auth risks at issuance time but leaves runtime claim verification untouched, so each direction only partially addresses the other.
PR.PS-01 can enforce auth-related settings via hardened baselines and default reviews, blocking some config-based instances of CWE-287, yet leaves code-level auth flaws untouched so neither direction reaches mostly.
Patching/maintenance can remediate some known auth vulnerabilities after deployment (partial forward) but does not address the design or implementation of authentication logic itself (none reverse).
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.
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.
Mandating segregated approval and oversight for non-human identities reduces the chance that weak or orphaned credentials can be exploited for unauthorized authentication.
Requiring authentication mechanisms and technical parameters for secure connections ensures that network services verify user identity before granting access, preventing exploitation of missing or weak authentication.
Security requirements specified early and verified through testing drive the consistent implementation of authentication mechanisms, decreasing the likelihood that authentication steps are omitted or incorrectly applied.
Defining the required level of trust in entity identity and the authentication mechanisms to achieve it ensures that authentication is explicitly addressed rather than omitted.
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