CVE-2025-46066

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-46066 is a privilege escalation vulnerability identified in Automai Director version 25.2.0. The flaw allows a remote attacker to elevate their privileges within the application, potentially gaining unauthorized administrative control. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 0.0, indicating incomplete scoring data, but the impact is assessed as high due to the nature of privilege escalation. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is currently available, and no patch has been released by the vendor. The EPSS score is 0.0%, suggesting low exploitation activity in the wild, but the risk remains significant for organizations using this software.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability is not related to NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby ecosystems. It is a standalone application vulnerability in Automai Director.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

The CVSS score is listed as 0.0, which typically indicates that the vector has not been assigned or is pending analysis. Based on the description of remote privilege escalation, a plausible vector would be:

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – remote exploitation.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – likely requires no special conditions.
• Privileges Required (PR): Low (L) – attacker needs some access to exploit.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – no user action required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – vulnerability does not cross trust boundaries.
• Confidentiality (C): High (H) – full data access possible.
• Integrity (I): High (H) – full control over data.
• Availability (A): High (H) – potential for denial of service.

Threat Level: High. Remote privilege escalation can lead to full system compromise.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability in Automai Director v25.2.0 likely stems from improper access control or insecure deserialization in the application’s authentication or authorization mechanisms. A remote attacker with low-privileged access can send crafted requests to escalate their role to administrator. The exact vector is unknown due to lack of public details, but common patterns include:

• Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR): Manipulating user IDs or role parameters.
• Authentication Bypass: Exploiting flawed session management.
• API Abuse: Sending requests to privileged endpoints without proper checks.

The attack surface is the web interface or API endpoints exposed by Automai Director.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

No patched version is available. The vulnerable code is in Automai Director v25.2.0. Without vendor disclosure, specific code comparison is not possible. The fix would likely involve:

• Implementing strict role-based access control (RBAC) checks.
• Validating user permissions on every request.
• Sanitizing input parameters that affect user roles.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Since no public exploit exists, a red team would need to reverse-engineer the application. Steps:

1. Reconnaissance: Identify Automai Director endpoints (e.g., /api/users, /admin).
2. Fuzzing: Send requests with modified role parameters (e.g., role=admin).
3. Session Manipulation: Attempt to forge session tokens or cookies.
4. Privilege Escalation: Use a low-privilege account to access admin functions.

Example request (hypothetical):

POST /api/update-profile HTTP/1.1
Host: target.com
Content-Type: application/json

{"user_id": 1, "role": "administrator"}

Blue Team

• Monitor for unusual API calls to sensitive endpoints.
• Alert on changes to user roles or permissions.
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block suspicious patterns.

Detection rule (Sigma):

title: Automai Director Privilege Escalation Attempt
id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012
status: experimental
description: Detects attempts to escalate privileges in Automai Director
logsource:
  category: web
  product: apache
detection:
  selection:
    cs-method: 'POST'
    cs-uri-stem: '/api/update-profile'
    cs-uri-query: '*role=administrator*'
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate admin actions
level: high

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network: Unusual POST requests to /api/update-profile or similar endpoints.
• Logs: User role changes in application logs.
• File: Modified configuration files (e.g., config.php) indicating privilege escalation.
• Process: Unexpected admin sessions from non-admin IPs.

Example IOC (YARA rule for log files):

rule Automai_PrivEsc_Logs
{
  meta:
    description = "Detects privilege escalation attempts in Automai Director logs"
    author = "Valters IT"
  strings:
    $s1 = "role=administrator" nocase
    $s2 = "user_id=" nocase
  condition:
    any of them
}

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule Automai_Director_PrivEsc
{
  meta:
    description = "Detects privilege escalation patterns in Automai Director"
    author = "Valters IT"
  strings:
    $s1 = "role=administrator" nocase
    $s2 = "privilege" nocase
    $s3 = "escalation" nocase
  condition:
    any of them
}

Sigma Rule

title: Automai Director Privilege Escalation
id: 87654321-4321-4321-4321-210987654321
status: experimental
description: Detects privilege escalation attempts in Automai Director
logsource:
  category: application
  product: automai
detection:
  selection:
    event_id: 4624
    account_name: 'admin'
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate admin logins
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"Automai Director Privilege Escalation Attempt"; flow:to_server; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/api/update-profile"; http_uri; content:"role=administrator"; http_client_body; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

1. Immediate: Restrict network access to Automai Director to trusted IPs only.
2. Short-term: Implement additional authentication layers (e.g., MFA) for admin functions.
3. Long-term: Monitor vendor for patches. If none, consider isolating the application or migrating to an alternative solution.
4. Compensating Controls: Use a WAF to block suspicious requests. Enable detailed logging and alerting.

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers