CVE-2025-55060

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-55060 describes an open redirect vulnerability (CWE-601) present in an unidentified web application or service. The NVD classification confirms the flaw allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to redirect users from a trusted domain to an arbitrary external URL by manipulating a URL parameter. The CVSS score is 6.1 (Medium), reflecting the need for user interaction (clicking a crafted link) and low confidentiality/integrity impact. Because the vendor and affected product are unnamed in public CVE data, the actual risk is elevated by uncertainty: enterprise teams must treat any URL redirect endpoint in their environment as potentially affected until fingerprinting identifies the product.

Technical Analysis

The vulnerability belongs to the CWE-601 class: URL Redirection to Untrusted Site, also known as an "open redirect." The NVD description provides no product or version details, so the analysis is based strictly on the vulnerability class mechanics.

Root cause mechanism: The application fails to validate or sanitize user-supplied input that is used to construct a redirect URL. Typically, this occurs when an application accepts a next, return, redirect, url, or similar parameter in an HTTP GET request and passes it to a server-side Location header or client-side window.location assignment without verifying the destination host matches the originating domain. The server trusts the attacker-controlled value, generating a HTTP 302 response with a Location header pointing to an external domain. In a variant, the application may only check that the string starts with http or contains a legitimate-looking prefix without validating the full hostname, allowing https://evil.com/legitimate.com to bypass weak filters.

Attack surface: Any public-facing endpoint that implements a redirect after a login, logout, language switch, or URL-shortening function. The attack is triggered by a crafted URL like https://trusted.example.com/redirect?dest=https%3A%2F%2Fevil.example.com%2Fphish. Since no authentication is required to trigger the redirect, the attack surface includes pre-authentication pages. The vulnerability is reachable via standard HTTP(S) requests, making it remotely exploitable across the internet.

Impact chain: The attacker controls the destination, so the payload is the redirect target itself — a phishing page, credential harvester, or malware drop site. The impact is limited in severity (CVSS 6.1) because the attacker cannot directly execute code or alter server state; the compromise is against the user's trust in the domain and their subsequent actions on the attacker-controlled page.

Exploitation Scenarios

The attack chain for CVE-2025-55060 relies on social engineering to drive the victim to a crafted URL.

1) Reconnaissance and target identification: The attacker identifies a public web application and probes for redirect parameters. Common endpoints include /login, /logout, /redirect, /go, /out, or any URL containing a ?url=, ?next=, ?redirect=, or ?dest= parameter. The attacker sends a test request: https://target.com/login?next=https://evil.com and observes whether the server responds with a 302 Location: https://evil.com header and whether the browser lands on the external site. A second test uses https://target.com/redirect?url=//evil.com (protocol-relative URL) to check for filtering weaknesses.

2) Trigger/weaponization: Once a vulnerable parameter is confirmed, the attacker crafts a malicious link using the trusted domain: https://trusted.example.com/authenticate?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fevil.example.com%2FcredentialHarvest. To increase credibility, the attacker can use URL encoding obfuscation (double-encoding) or a lookalike subdomain (https://trusted.example.com.attacker.xyz/) if the validator only checks the first label. The crafted link is placed in phishing emails, posted on social media, or embedded in web forum comments.

3) Payload/execution: The victim clicks the link. The browser requests the trusted domain, which responds with an immediate 302 Redirect to the attacker's domain. The victim's browser then loads the phishing page that mirrors the legitimate login screen. The victim enters credentials, which are sent to the attacker's server. The attacker now possesses the user's session credentials. Even if the redirect requires the user to log in first, the attacker can use the trick of a redirect after a successful auth to exfiltrate a session token via a URL fragment: https://trusted.example.com/login?next=https://evil.com/harvest#SESSIONID.

4) Post-exploitation impact: The attacker uses harvested credentials to access the legitimate application, potentially escalating to data theft, lateral movement, or account takeover. Alternatively, the malicious page can serve browser exploit kits targeting client-side vulnerabilities, converting a phishing victim into a compromised host. Because the redirect is delivered via the trusted, legitimate domain, email security gateways and URL reputation filters often fail to block the initial link, increasing the likelihood the victim clicks it.

Impact Assessment

The CVSS vector for CVE-2025-55060 is AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N, scoring 6.1 (Medium). The breakdown:

• Attack Vector (AV:N): Remote exploitation over the network; no physical access required.
• Attack Complexity (AC:L): No special conditions; the crafted URL works in any browser.
• Privileges Required (PR:N): No authentication needed — any unauthenticated user can trigger the redirect.
• User Interaction (UI:R): The victim must click the malicious link; automated exploitation is not possible.
• Scope (S:C): The impact extends beyond the vulnerable component — the redirect impacts the user's session and trust in the domain, and may lead to downstream compromise.
• Confidentiality/Integrity (L/L): Only low impact — the attacker does not directly read or modify application data but can obtain credentials via phishing.

Business impact: For an enterprise, an open redirect on a corporate portal undermines brand trust and enables credential phishing against employees. Even with a Medium severity, the practical consequence of a successful phishing campaign against a corporate login is often account takeover, which is a High-impact event. The blast radius includes all users of the affected application, and the redirect acts as a trust anchor for the entire attack chain.

Affected systems and blast radius: Unidentified product; assume all public-facing web applications with redirect logic are at risk. In a typical enterprise, this includes SSO portals, customer-facing web apps, and marketing campaign tracking URLs. A single vulnerable endpoint can be used to target thousands of users, as the phishing link appears legitimate.

Detection Guidance

The following detection rules are indicators of an open redirect exploitation attempt. These rules are illustrative and should be tuned to the specific environment.

Sigma Rule

title: Open Redirect Exploitation Attempt - CVE-2025-55060
status: experimental
description: Detects HTTP requests containing redirect parameters pointing to external domains
logsource:
  category: webserver
  product: apache
  definition: 'Requires web server access logs or reverse proxy logs'
detection:
  selection_redirect_param:
    http.url|contains:
      - '?next='
      - '?redirect='
      - '?dest='
      - '?url='
      - '?return='
      - '?returnurl='
  selection_external_domain:
    http.url|contains:
      - 'http://'
      - 'https://'
  filter_localhost:
    http.url|contains:
      - 'localhost'
      - '127.0.0.1'
      - 'internal.example.com'
  condition: selection_redirect_param and selection_external_domain and not filter_localhost
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate use of single sign-on with external identity providers
  - URL shortener services
level: medium
tags:
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.t1190
  - cve.2025-55060

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_55060_Open_Redirect
{
    meta:
        author = "ValterIT SIEM Team"
        description = "Detects patterns of open redirect parameters in URLs"
        reference = "CVE-2025-55060"
        severity = "medium"
    strings:
        $redirect_param1 = "?next=" ascii wide
        $redirect_param2 = "?redirect=" ascii wide
        $redirect_param3 = "?dest=" ascii wide
        $redirect_param4 = "?url=" ascii wide
        $external_scheme = "http://" ascii wide
        $external_scheme_ssl = "https://" ascii wide
        $protocol_relative = "//" ascii wide
    condition:
        ($redirect_param1 or $redirect_param2 or $redirect_param3 or $redirect_param4)
        and ($external_scheme or $external_scheme_ssl or $protocol_relative)
}

Suricata IDS Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-55060 Open Redirect Attempt - External URL in Redirect Parameter"; flow:to_server,established; content:"?next="; nocase; http_uri; content:"http://"; http_uri; distance:0; classtype:web-application-attack; sid:20255060; rev:1;)

Elastic Detection

sequence by source.ip with maxspan=1m
  [ network where event.action == "connection_attempted" and destination.port == 80 or destination.port == 443 ]
  [ http where http.request.method == "GET" and (
      wildcard(http.request.uri, "*?next=*http*") or
      wildcard(http.request.uri, "*?redirect=*http*") or
      wildcard(http.request.uri, "*?dest=*http*") or
      wildcard(http.request.uri, "*?url=*http*") )
  ]

Splunk SPL Query

index=web sourcetype=access_combined
| where LIKE(url, "%?next=%") OR LIKE(url, "%?redirect=%") OR LIKE(url, "%?dest=%") OR LIKE(url, "%?url=%")
| eval has_external = if(match(url, "(?i)https?://"), "true", "false")
| where has_external == "true"
| stats count by clientip, url, status
| where count > 3

Wazuh OSSEC Rule

<group name="web_attack,">
    <rule id="555601" level="6">
        <if_sid>31100</if_sid>
        <regex>(\?next=|\?redirect=|\?dest=|\?url=)</regex>
        <regex>http://|https://</regex>
        <description>CVE-2025-55060 Open Redirect: External URL detected in redirect parameter</description>
        <group>web_application_attack,</group>
    </rule>
</group>

Mitigation & Patch Guidance

Patch confidence: 2/4 (CLAIMED — single source claims patch (not independently confirmed)). The NVD description does not specify a fixed version, and patch sources are empty. Do not rely on an assumed patch; verify with the vendor.

1) Immediate mitigations:

• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to inspect Location headers in responses and replace external destinations with a default error page.
• Configure the web server to reject requests where the redirect parameter value is not a relative path (i.e., does not start with /).
• If the application code is accessible, patch the validation logic to only allow protocol-relative URLs if the host matches the current Host header exactly. Block any http or https URL in the redirect parameter unless it matches an allowlist of domains.
• Force all internal authentication tokens to be revoked if there is any suspicion of a phishing campaign using this vector.

2) Patch/upgrade steps:

• Identify the underlying product by fingerprinting redirect endpoints and contacting the vendor. Until the vendor is named, monitor NVD and vendor advisories for an update that explicitly references CVE-2025-55060.
• Apply the vendor's security patch when confirmed. If the product is a framework or middleware, check the project's release notes for the CVE reference.
• After applying any fix, re-test all redirect endpoints with crafted payloads (https://trusted/redirect?url=https://evil.com, //evil.com, https:///evil.com, double-encoded variants) and verify the server returns a 4xx error or a same-origin redirect.

3) Long-term hardening:

• Implement server-side URL validation middleware that rejects all redirects except those to explicitly allowlisted internal paths.
• Use relative redirects (/dashboard) wherever possible; avoid absolute URL redirect parameters entirely.
• Add a .htaccess or equivalent rule to block request URI containing :// in parameter values at the web server level.
• Run a Content Security Policy (CSP) with navigate-to restrictions to limit allowed navigation destinations in browsers, and use Referrer-Policy: same-origin to prevent leaking the session token in the Referer header to external destinations.
• Conduct an internal bug bounty or penetration test focusing on URL and parameter handling to discover similar flaws before attackers do.

References

1. NVD Entry: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-55060
2. CWE-601 Open Redirect: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/601.html
3. OWASP Testing for Client-side URL Redirect: https://owasp.org/www-project-web-security-testing-guide/latest/4-Web_Application_Security_Testing/11-Client-side_Testing/04-Testing_for_Client-side_URL_Redirect
4. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog (CVE-2025-55060 is not listed as of this report)

Threat actor activity: No public evidence exists of CVE-2025-55060 being exploited in the wild, and no exploit code or Nuclei template is available. The vulnerability class (open redirect) is a known preference for phishing operations, including groups like the finance-focused FIN6 and various credential-harvesting campaigns, which often use open redirects on trusted domains to bypass email security. If exploited, the expected pattern is a wave of phishing emails containing https://legitimate-domain.com/redirect?via=https://malicious-actor-domain/. Organizations should prioritize detection rules above and monitor for an uptick in internal users visiting external phishing pages following a redirect from corporate endpoints.