CVE-2025-11898: Agentflow Path Traversal Vulnerability

CVE-2025-11898 Overview

Agentflow, a workflow automation platform developed by Flowring, contains an Arbitrary File Reading vulnerability that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to exploit Relative Path Traversal (CWE-23) to download arbitrary system files. This vulnerability enables attackers to access sensitive configuration files, credentials, and other critical system data without requiring any authentication.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated remote attackers can read arbitrary files from the system, potentially exposing sensitive configuration data, credentials, database connection strings, and other critical information that could facilitate further attacks.

Affected Products

• Flowring Agentflow (specific versions not disclosed in advisory)

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-10-17 - CVE-2025-11898 published to NVD
• 2026-04-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-11898

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability falls under the category of Path Traversal (Directory Traversal), specifically Relative Path Traversal as classified by CWE-23. The flaw exists in how Agentflow processes user-supplied file paths, failing to properly sanitize or validate path components before using them in file system operations.

When an attacker crafts a request containing path traversal sequences (such as ../), the application fails to normalize or reject these malicious inputs. This allows the attacker to escape the intended directory scope and access files located anywhere on the file system that the application process has read permissions for.

The network-accessible nature of this vulnerability combined with the lack of authentication requirements makes it particularly dangerous. Attackers can exploit this flaw remotely without any prior access or credentials, significantly lowering the barrier to exploitation.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is improper input validation in the file handling mechanism of Agentflow. The application does not adequately sanitize user-controlled path input before concatenating it with a base directory path. This allows relative path traversal sequences to escape the intended directory boundary.

Specifically, the application fails to:

• Normalize file paths before processing
• Reject or strip path traversal sequences (../, ..\, URL-encoded variants)
• Validate that the resolved path remains within the expected directory scope
• Implement proper canonicalization of file paths

Attack Vector

The vulnerability is exploitable over the network without requiring authentication. An attacker can send specially crafted HTTP requests containing path traversal sequences to access arbitrary files on the target system. Common targets include:

• Configuration files containing database credentials
• Application configuration with API keys or secrets
• System files such as /etc/passwd on Linux systems
• Log files that may contain sensitive information
• Source code or other application files

The attack can be executed by appending path traversal sequences to legitimate file request endpoints, allowing navigation outside the web root or intended file serving directory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-11898

Indicators of Compromise

• Web server access logs containing path traversal patterns such as ../, ..%2F, %2E%2E/, or similar encoded variants in request URIs
• Unusual file access attempts targeting system configuration files (e.g., /etc/passwd, web.config, .env files)
• High volume of requests to file download endpoints from a single source
• Requests attempting to access files outside the normal application scope

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block path traversal sequences in request parameters and URI paths
• Implement intrusion detection signatures for common path traversal patterns
• Monitor application logs for failed or unusual file access attempts
• Configure endpoint detection to alert on suspicious file read operations from web application processes

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging on Agentflow application and web server access logs
• Set up alerting for requests containing path traversal indicators
• Monitor for access to sensitive system files from the Agentflow process
• Review network traffic for suspicious file download patterns originating from the Agentflow server

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-11898

Immediate Actions Required

• Review the TW-CERT Security Advisory for vendor-specific guidance
• Restrict network access to Agentflow to trusted IP ranges only
• Place Agentflow behind a reverse proxy or WAF with path traversal protection enabled
• Monitor logs for exploitation attempts while awaiting vendor patches
• Consider temporarily disabling file download functionality if not critical to operations

Patch Information

Organizations should consult the TW-CERT Incident Report and contact Flowring directly for official patch information. Apply vendor-provided security updates as soon as they become available.

Workarounds

• Implement strict input validation at the network perimeter using a WAF to filter path traversal sequences
• Configure network segmentation to limit the exposure of the Agentflow application
• Run the application with minimal file system permissions (principle of least privilege)
• Use operating system-level file access controls to restrict which directories the application process can read
• Deploy file integrity monitoring to detect unauthorized access to sensitive system files