CVE-2026-61649 in SuiteCRM
Summary
by MITRE • 11/05/2026
SuiteCRM is an open-source, enterprise-ready Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software application. Prior to 7.15.2 and 8.10.2, the SSRF protection added in 7.15.1 uses a substring comparison in isSelfRequest() rather than hostname equality. The affected flow begins at validate_external_host() and uses isSelfRequest(), and stripos() to carry attacker-controlled data or authorization state into the security-sensitive operation. An authenticated attacker can place the server hostname in a URL path to bypass IP validation and direct server-side requests to internal services. This issue is fixed in versions 7.15.2 and 8.10.2.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/05/2026
SuiteCRM, an open-source enterprise-grade Customer Relationship Management platform, suffered from a Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability stemming from flawed hostname validation logic introduced in version 7.15.1. The core technical flaw resides within the isSelfRequest() function and its interaction with validate_external_host(). Instead of performing strict equality checks against hostnames or IP addresses to determine if a request target is internal, the implementation relied on substring matching via stripos(). This approach failed to account for edge cases where an attacker-controlled hostname could contain the legitimate server's hostname as a suffix. For instance, if the internal server was named example.com, an attacker could register and control evil-example.com or similar variations that would pass the substring check despite being external domains.
The operational impact of this vulnerability allows authenticated attackers to bypass IP validation mechanisms designed to prevent SSRF attacks. By injecting specific URL paths containing crafted hostnames, an attacker can trick the application into making server-side requests to internal services that are otherwise inaccessible from the public internet. This capability enables unauthorized access to internal APIs, database interfaces, or management consoles residing on the same network segment as the SuiteCRM instance. The vulnerability effectively neutralizes a critical security control intended to restrict outbound connections to trusted external resources only, thereby expanding the attack surface significantly for any authenticated user within the system.
This flaw is categorized under CWE-918 Server-Side Request Forgery and aligns with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1557, which covers Adversary-in-the-Middle scenarios where attackers leverage SSRF to intercept or manipulate communications between internal systems. The failure lies in improper input validation of hostnames during the processing of external requests, specifically failing to enforce strict domain matching rules. Such weaknesses are common when developers assume that substring checks provide sufficient security boundaries without considering DNS rebinding techniques or subdomain hijacking scenarios where attackers can control domains containing legitimate names as substrings.
To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations running affected versions must upgrade immediately to SuiteCRM version 7.15.2 or later, which includes the corrected validation logic using strict hostname equality checks rather than substring comparisons. Until upgrading is feasible, administrators should implement network-level controls such as firewall rules that restrict outbound HTTP/HTTPS traffic from the application server to only explicitly whitelisted external domains and IPs. Additionally, deploying a web application firewall with SSRF detection capabilities can provide an additional layer of defense by inspecting outgoing requests for suspicious patterns or unauthorized internal IP addresses. Regular security audits focusing on input validation practices in URL handling functions are recommended to prevent similar logic flaws in future development cycles.