CVE-2025-15154
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in PbootCMS allows attackers to spoof IP addresses by manipulating the X-Forwarded-For header. The system incorrectly trusts this header value for user IP identification, enabling IP-based security bypasses. All PbootCMS installations up to version 3.2.12 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- PbootCMS
📦 What is this software?
Pbootcms by Pbootcms
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could bypass IP-based access controls, rate limiting, or authentication mechanisms, potentially gaining unauthorized access to admin panels or sensitive functionality.
Likely Case
IP spoofing to bypass basic security controls like login attempt limits or geographic restrictions.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper validation of client IPs is implemented through multiple verification methods.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploit requires only HTTP header manipulation, making it trivial to execute.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Unknown
Vendor Advisory: None available
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
No official patch available. Consider upgrading to any version above 3.2.12 if released, or apply manual fixes to the get_user_ip function.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Modify get_user_ip function
allEdit core/function/handle.php to properly validate X-Forwarded-For headers or remove trust in this header
Edit core/function/handle.php and modify the get_user_ip function to validate IP addresses from trusted proxies only
Web server header filtering
linuxConfigure web server to strip or validate X-Forwarded-For headers
For Apache: mod_headers configuration
For Nginx: proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement WAF rules to detect and block suspicious X-Forwarded-For header patterns
- Deploy reverse proxy that validates and sanitizes all incoming headers before reaching PbootCMS
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if PbootCMS version is ≤3.2.12 and examine core/function/handle.php for the get_user_ip function that trusts X-Forwarded-For header without validationCheck Version:
Check PbootCMS version in admin panel or examine version files in installation directoryVerify Fix Applied:
Test with crafted X-Forwarded-For headers to ensure they no longer affect the reported user IP📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple requests with different X-Forwarded-For values from same source IP
- Suspicious IP patterns in access logs
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests containing manipulated X-Forwarded-For headers
SIEM Query:
http.headers:X-Forwarded-For AND (http.user_agent:*PbootCMS* OR http.url_path:*pbootcms*)