CVE-2025-48738 in TheHive
Summary
by MITRE • 05/23/2025
An e-mail flooding vulnerability in StrangeBee TheHive 5.2.0 before 5.2.16, 5.3.0 before 5.3.11, 5.4.0 before 5.4.10, and 5.5.0 before 5.5.1 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to use the password reset feature without limits. This can lead to several consequences, including mailbox storage exhaustion for targeted users, reputation damage to the SMTP server, potentially causing it to be blacklisted, and overload of the SMTP server's outbound mail queue.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/24/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-48738 represents a critical email flooding weakness within the StrangeBee TheHive platform version 5.2.0 through 5.5.0, specifically affecting versions prior to their respective patch releases. This flaw resides in the password reset functionality which lacks proper rate limiting or authentication mechanisms, enabling malicious actors to exploit this feature without requiring valid credentials or account access. The vulnerability manifests when unauthenticated remote attackers can repeatedly trigger password reset requests against user accounts, effectively creating an email flooding attack vector that can be executed at scale.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control measures within the password reset endpoint of the TheHive application. When users initiate password reset requests, the system should enforce rate limiting mechanisms to prevent abuse, but in affected versions this protection is either completely absent or inadequately implemented. This allows attackers to generate unlimited password reset requests targeting specific email addresses or a broad range of accounts, exploiting the legitimate functionality for malicious purposes. The flaw aligns with CWE-305 authentication weakness and potentially CWE-400 denial of service through resource exhaustion, as the system fails to properly manage resource consumption during authentication attempts.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple spam generation to encompass significant infrastructure and reputation risks for organizations utilizing TheHive. Targeted users experience mailbox storage exhaustion as numerous reset emails flood their inboxes, potentially disrupting critical business operations and user productivity. The SMTP server hosting the application faces substantial strain as outbound mail queues become overloaded with the flood of reset notifications, leading to service degradation or complete mail delivery failures. Furthermore, the excessive email volume generated by this attack can cause the organization's mail server to be flagged by spam filters and blacklisted by major email providers, resulting in long-term reputation damage that affects legitimate email communications. This vulnerability directly maps to attack techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under T1114 for email collection and T1499 for endpoint resource exhaustion, demonstrating how a seemingly benign authentication feature can be weaponized for broader network disruption.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement rate limiting controls on the password reset endpoint to restrict the number of requests per IP address or user account within a given time window. Network-level mitigations include configuring SMTP server restrictions to limit outbound email volume and implementing additional spam filtering rules to identify and quarantine excessive reset email patterns. The most effective remediation involves upgrading to patched versions of TheHive 5.2.16, 5.3.11, 5.4.10, and 5.5.1, which include proper authentication controls and rate limiting mechanisms. Security administrators should also monitor mail server logs for unusual spikes in password reset activity and establish automated alerting for potential abuse patterns. Additional defensive measures include implementing IP address whitelisting for legitimate password reset requests, requiring additional verification steps such as CAPTCHA for reset requests, and conducting regular security audits of authentication endpoints to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in other application features. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of securing authentication mechanisms and implementing comprehensive rate limiting controls across all user-facing application endpoints to prevent abuse and maintain system integrity.