# CVE-2025-25205: Remote Authentication-Bypass can lead to server crash or limited information disclosure due to faulty pattern matching

> Attackers can bypass authentication via crafted URLs to access protected data or crash the Audiobookshelf server.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 13 Feb 2025

## What is CVE-2025-25205?

CVE-2025-25205 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in advplyr audiobookshelf, published on 12 Feb 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Audiobookshelf is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server. Starting in version 2.17.0 and prior to version 2.19.1, a flaw in the authentication bypass logic allows unauthenticated requests to match certain unanchored regex patterns in the URL. Attackers can craft URLs containing substrings like "/api/items/1/cover" in a query parameter (?r=/api/items/1/cover) to partially bypass authentication or trigger server crashes under certain routes. This could lead to information disclosure of otherwise protected data and, in some cases, a complete denial of service (server crash) if downstream code expects an authenticated user object. Version 2.19.1 contains a patch for the issue.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption), CWE-287 (Improper Authentication), CWE-202 (Exposure of Sensitive Information Through Data Queries)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-25205?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Audiobookshelf Audiobookshelf.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-25205?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-25205 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-25205 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-25205 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Audiobookshelf Unauthenticated API Authentication Bypass Scanner (metasploit)

## Other vulnerabilities in advplyr audiobookshelf

- [CVE-2025-57800](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-57800/): Audiobookshelf vulnerable to OIDC token exfiltration and account takeover (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-47619](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-47619/): Audiobookshelf Server-Side Request Forgery and Arbitrary File Read Vulnerability (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2023-47624](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-47624/): Audiobookshelf Arbitrary File Read Vulnerability (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-46338](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-46338/): Audiobookshelf Vulnerable to Cross-Site-Scripting Reflected via POST Request in /api/upload (medium 6.9)
- [CVE-2024-43797](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-43797/): Path Traversal in audiobookshelf (medium 6.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-25205 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-25205 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in advplyr audiobookshelf, published on 12 Feb 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-25205 exists.

Affected product: advplyr audiobookshelf. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-25205/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-25205/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-25205
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-25205
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-25205

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-25205/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.