CVE-2025-65899
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2025-65899 is a user enumeration vulnerability in Kalmia CMS that allows unauthenticated attackers to determine valid usernames by observing different error messages for invalid users versus valid users with incorrect passwords. This affects all deployments of Kalmia CMS version 0.2.0. The vulnerability enables reconnaissance that can facilitate further attacks.
💻 Affected Systems
- Kalmia CMS
📦 What is this software?
Kalmia by Difuse
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers enumerate all valid usernames, then conduct targeted password attacks leading to account compromise and potential privilege escalation.
Likely Case
Attackers enumerate some usernames and use them for targeted phishing or credential stuffing attacks.
If Mitigated
Attackers cannot determine valid usernames, forcing them to use less efficient brute-force methods.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires only HTTP requests and observation of error messages.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Not available
Vendor Advisory: Not available
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
No official patch exists. Consider upgrading to a newer version if available or implementing workarounds.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Standardize Authentication Error Messages
allModify the authentication mechanism to return identical error messages for both invalid usernames and incorrect passwords.
Edit authentication logic to return generic error: 'Invalid username or password' for all failed login attempts
Implement Rate Limiting
allAdd rate limiting to authentication endpoints to slow down enumeration attempts.
Configure web server or application rate limiting for /login endpoint
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement a web application firewall (WAF) with rules to detect user enumeration patterns
- Monitor authentication logs for unusual patterns of failed login attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Attempt login with invalid username and observe error message, then attempt login with known valid username and wrong password to see if error message differs.Check Version:
Check Kalmia CMS configuration files or admin interface for version informationVerify Fix Applied:
Verify that both invalid username and valid username with wrong password scenarios return identical error messages.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple failed login attempts with different usernames from same source
- Pattern of 'user_not_found' errors followed by 'invalid_password' errors
Network Indicators:
- Unusual volume of POST requests to login endpoint
- Sequential username guessing patterns
SIEM Query:
source_ip=* AND (event_type='failed_login' OR message LIKE '%user_not_found%' OR message LIKE '%invalid_password%') | stats count by source_ip, username