# CVE-2025-42616: CSRF vulnerability in CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup

> Attackers can trick logged-in users into performing unauthorized state-changing actions via GET requests, leading to privilege escalation or data modification.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 8 Dec 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cr8j-9qv8-5jph

## What is CVE-2025-42616?

CVE-2025-42616 is a high-severity vulnerability in CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup, published on 8 Dec 2025. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Some endpoints in vulnerability-lookup that modified 
application state (e.g. changing database entries, user data, 
configurations, or other privileged actions) may have been accessible 
via HTTP GET requests without requiring a CSRF token. This flaw leaves 
the application vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks:
 an attacker who tricks a logged-in user into visiting a malicious 
website could cause the user’s browser to issue GET requests that 
perform unintended state-changing operations in the context of their 
authenticated session.

Because the server would treat these GET requests as valid (since no 
CSRF protection or POST method enforcement was in place), the attacker 
could exploit this to escalate privileges, change settings, or carry out
 other unauthorized actions without needing the user’s explicit consent 
or awareness. 
The fix ensures that all state-changing endpoints now require HTTP POST 
requests and include a valid CSRF token. This enforces that state 
changes cannot be triggered by arbitrary cross-site GET requests. This issue affects Vulnerability-Lookup: before 2.18.0.

Weakness: CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-42616?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-42616?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-42616 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-42616 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-42616 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-42616 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-42616 is a high-severity vulnerability in CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup, published on 8 Dec 2025. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-42616 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup. 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-2025-42616/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-42616/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-42616
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-42616
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-42616

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-42616/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.