CVE-2025-10240: Progress Flowmon CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-10240 Overview

A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability exists in the Progress Flowmon web application prior to version 12.5.5. This vulnerability allows an attacker to craft a malicious link that, when clicked by an authenticated user, may inadvertently trigger unintended actions within their authenticated session. The vulnerability is classified as CWE-79, indicating improper neutralization of input during web page generation.

Critical Impact

Authenticated users who click on attacker-controlled malicious links may unknowingly execute unauthorized actions within the Flowmon web application, potentially compromising network flow data integrity, configuration settings, or sensitive monitoring information.

Affected Products

• Progress Flowmon versions prior to 12.5.5
• Progress Flowmon web application components

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-10-09 - CVE-2025-10240 published to NVD
• 2026-04-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-10240

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability falls within the category of Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), where the Flowmon web application fails to properly validate the origin of requests made by authenticated users. When a user with an active session clicks on a malicious link crafted by an attacker, the application cannot distinguish between legitimate user-initiated requests and forged requests initiated through the attacker's malicious content.

The impact of successful exploitation could allow attackers to perform administrative actions, modify monitoring configurations, access sensitive network flow data, or alter user account settings—all within the context of the victim's authenticated session. This is particularly concerning for network monitoring appliances like Flowmon, which often have broad visibility into organizational network traffic patterns.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is insufficient request validation in the Progress Flowmon web application. The application does not adequately implement anti-CSRF protections such as CSRF tokens, SameSite cookie attributes, or origin validation headers. This allows attackers to construct URLs or forms that, when accessed by an authenticated user, will be processed by the server as legitimate requests.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker must first craft a malicious link or web page containing forged requests to the Flowmon application. The attacker then delivers this malicious content to the victim through social engineering methods such as phishing emails, malicious websites, or compromised web pages. When an authenticated Flowmon user clicks the malicious link or visits the attacker-controlled page, their browser automatically includes their session credentials, causing the Flowmon server to execute the forged request with the victim's privileges.

The vulnerability requires no special privileges from the attacker's perspective but depends on the victim having an active authenticated session with the Flowmon application. The technical details and specific exploitation methods can be found in the Progress Community Article.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-10240

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual configuration changes in Flowmon settings made during off-hours or from unexpected IP addresses
• Administrative actions logged without corresponding user-initiated activity
• Referrer headers in web server logs pointing to external domains for sensitive operations
• Multiple rapid state-changing requests from a single authenticated session

Detection Strategies

• Monitor Flowmon web server access logs for requests with external or missing Referer headers to sensitive endpoints
• Implement alerting for configuration modifications or administrative actions with unusual timing patterns
• Review authentication logs for sessions where administrative actions occur shortly after accessing external links
• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common CSRF attack patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for all state-changing operations within the Flowmon web interface
• Configure SIEM alerts for administrative actions preceded by requests from untrusted referrer domains
• Implement user behavior analytics to identify anomalous session activity patterns
• Regularly audit Flowmon configuration changes and correlate with expected administrative activities

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-10240

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade Progress Flowmon to version 12.5.5 or later immediately
• Review recent administrative actions and configuration changes for signs of unauthorized modifications
• Educate users with Flowmon administrative access about phishing and social engineering risks
• Implement network segmentation to restrict access to the Flowmon administrative interface

Patch Information

Progress has released version 12.5.5 of Flowmon which addresses this CSRF vulnerability. Organizations should apply this update as soon as possible. For additional guidance and patch details, refer to the Progress Community Article.

Workarounds

• Restrict access to the Flowmon web interface to trusted internal networks only using firewall rules
• Implement additional authentication factors for administrative actions where possible
• Train users to log out of Flowmon sessions when not actively in use to minimize the window of opportunity
• Deploy a reverse proxy with CSRF protection capabilities in front of the Flowmon application

# Example firewall rule to restrict Flowmon web interface access
# Adjust interface and IP ranges according to your environment
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -s 10.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j DROP