CVE-2025-10239 Overview
CVE-2025-10239 is a command injection vulnerability affecting Progress Flowmon versions prior to 12.5.5. The flaw resides in troubleshooting scripts available through the management interface. An authenticated user with administrator privileges can execute additional unintended operating system commands beyond what the scripts are designed to perform. The issue is tracked under CWE-78, Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command.
Critical Impact
An administrator with access to the Flowmon management interface can break out of intended script boundaries and run arbitrary OS commands, leading to full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the appliance.
Affected Products
- Progress Flowmon versions prior to 12.5.5
- Flowmon management interface (troubleshooting scripts component)
- Fixed in Flowmon 12.5.5
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-10-09 - CVE-2025-10239 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-10239
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability is an OS command injection flaw in scripts intended for troubleshooting within Flowmon. These scripts accept input parameters that are passed to underlying shell operations without sufficient neutralization. As a result, attacker-supplied content can be interpreted as additional shell commands rather than data.
Exploitation requires an authenticated session with administrator privileges and network access to the management interface. While the privilege requirement is high, successful exploitation grants command execution in the context of the Flowmon application, which typically holds privileged access to network telemetry, configuration, and credentials.
The flaw can be leveraged to pivot from administrative web access to underlying system shell access, undermining the trust boundary between the management UI and the appliance operating system.
Root Cause
The root cause is improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command (CWE-78). Troubleshooting scripts concatenate user-supplied parameters into shell command strings without strict allow-list validation or safe argument passing. Shell metacharacters such as ;, |, &&, backticks, and $() are not filtered, allowing chained or substituted commands.
Attack Vector
An attacker who already holds administrator credentials authenticates to the Flowmon management interface over the network. The attacker then invokes a vulnerable troubleshooting script and embeds shell metacharacters within an input field expected to contain a benign parameter such as a hostname or interface name. The injected sequence is appended to the command line executed by the script, resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host. No user interaction is required beyond the attacker's own session.
Progress documents this issue and the corresponding fix in the Progress Community advisory for CVE-2025-10239.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-10239
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected child processes spawned by Flowmon troubleshooting scripts or the web application user, particularly shells such as /bin/sh, /bin/bash, or interpreters like python, perl, and nc.
- Outbound network connections from the Flowmon appliance to untrusted IP addresses shortly after administrator activity in the management UI.
- Audit log entries showing administrator invocation of troubleshooting features with unusual parameter values containing shell metacharacters (;, |, &, `, $().
Detection Strategies
- Review Flowmon management interface access logs for administrator sessions running troubleshooting scripts, and correlate with system process execution logs on the appliance.
- Hunt for command-line arguments to troubleshooting scripts containing shell control characters or chained commands.
- Compare the integrity of /etc, application binaries, and cron entries on Flowmon hosts against a known-good baseline.
Monitoring Recommendations
- Forward Flowmon appliance audit, web, and process telemetry to a centralized logging or SIEM platform for retention and correlation.
- Alert on any new persistence mechanisms created on the appliance, including new SSH keys, cron jobs, or systemd units after administrator UI activity.
- Monitor administrator account usage on the management interface for anomalous source IPs, hours, or session frequency.
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-10239
Immediate Actions Required
- Upgrade Flowmon to version 12.5.5 or later as published in the Progress Community advisory.
- Rotate all administrator credentials and API tokens used with the Flowmon management interface.
- Audit recent administrator activity and troubleshooting script invocations for signs of misuse.
Patch Information
Progress addressed CVE-2025-10239 in Flowmon 12.5.5. The fix sanitizes parameters passed to troubleshooting scripts so that shell metacharacters cannot be interpreted as additional commands. Refer to the Progress Community CVE-2025-10239 article for vendor guidance and version availability.
Workarounds
- Restrict network access to the Flowmon management interface to a small set of trusted administrative IP addresses using firewall rules or a VPN.
- Reduce the number of accounts that hold Flowmon administrator privileges and enforce multi-factor authentication for those accounts.
- Disable or restrict use of troubleshooting scripts in production until the patched version is installed.
# Example: restrict management interface access to a trusted subnet using iptables
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -s 10.10.50.0/24 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j DROP
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
