CVE-2025-26499
📋 TL;DR
A race condition vulnerability in authentication/token refresh operations under heavy system load can cause user impersonation. When two users concurrently authenticate or refresh tokens, one user may receive another user's token, granting unintended access rights and data exposure. This affects systems using vulnerable authentication mechanisms during high utilization periods.
💻 Affected Systems
- Wind River products with vulnerable authentication mechanisms
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An administrator could receive a regular user's token, losing privileged access, while a regular user receives administrator privileges, potentially leading to data breaches, privilege escalation, and system compromise.
Likely Case
Users intermittently receiving incorrect access levels, causing data exposure between users at different privilege levels, but without intentional exploitation due to the random nature.
If Mitigated
With proper monitoring and session management, impact is limited to temporary access issues that can be quickly detected and terminated.
🎯 Exploit Status
Cannot be intentionally exploited due to requirement of concurrent legitimate user actions; occurs randomly under specific load conditions
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Check vendor advisory for specific fixed versions
Vendor Advisory: https://www.windriver.com/security/vulnerability-responses/CVE-2025-26499
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Review Wind River advisory for affected products. 2. Apply recommended patches or updates. 3. Test authentication functionality post-update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Reduce System Load
allMinimize concurrent authentication operations by implementing rate limiting or scheduling authentication during low-utilization periods
Session Monitoring
allImplement real-time session monitoring to detect and terminate suspicious token assignments
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict session timeout policies to limit exposure window
- Deploy additional authentication verification steps for sensitive operations
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check system version against Wind River's affected versions list in advisoryCheck Version:
System-specific command; consult product documentationVerify Fix Applied:
Verify patch installation and test authentication under simulated load conditions📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple authentication requests with same timestamp
- User session tokens changing unexpectedly
- Access logs showing user accessing resources not typical for their role
Network Indicators:
- Unusual authentication request patterns during high load
SIEM Query:
Authentication logs where user_id changes within same session or multiple successful auths within milliseconds