CVE-2025-44185
📋 TL;DR
This CSRF vulnerability in Best Employee Management System V1.0 allows attackers to trick authenticated administrators into unknowingly changing their passwords. Attackers can craft malicious web pages that, when visited by logged-in admins, submit password change requests without their consent. This affects all installations of the vulnerable software version.
💻 Affected Systems
- SourceCodester Best Employee Management System
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Administrator account takeover leading to complete system compromise, data theft, or malicious configuration changes.
Likely Case
Administrator lockout requiring password reset procedures, causing temporary disruption to management functions.
If Mitigated
No impact if proper CSRF protections are implemented or if administrators don't visit malicious sites while authenticated.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires administrator to be authenticated and visit malicious page. Proof-of-concept available in GitHub repository.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Not available
Vendor Advisory: Not available
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
No official patch available. Implement CSRF tokens in /admin/change_pass.php or upgrade to patched version if released.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Add CSRF Token Protection
allImplement CSRF tokens in the password change form and validation in change_pass.php
Edit /admin/change_pass.php to add token generation and validation
Use SameSite Cookies
allConfigure session cookies with SameSite=Strict attribute
session_set_cookie_params(['samesite' => 'Strict']);
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement web application firewall rules to detect CSRF attempts
- Require re-authentication for password changes
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if /admin/change_pass.php lacks CSRF token validation by reviewing source code or testing with CSRF PoCCheck Version:
Check system version in admin panel or readme filesVerify Fix Applied:
Test password change functionality with and without valid CSRF tokens📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple password change attempts from same admin session
- Password changes without corresponding form submissions
Network Indicators:
- HTTP POST requests to /admin/change_pass.php without Referer headers or with external origins
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND uri="/admin/change_pass.php" AND method="POST" AND NOT referer CONTAINS "your-domain.com"🔗 References
- https://github.com/cumakurt/CVE-SourceCodester-Best-Employee-Management-System-1.0/blob/main/CVE-2025-44185-SourceCodester-Best-Employee-Management-System-1.0-CSRF-in-Password-Change.md
- https://www.sourcecodester.com/php/17689/best-employee-management-system-php.html
- https://www.sourcecodester.com/sites/default/files/download/mayuri_k/_hr_soft_updated.zip
