CVE-2025-2042 Overview
CVE-2025-2042 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting huang-yk student-manage version 1.0, an open-source student management application hosted on GitHub. The flaw allows a remote attacker to trick an authenticated user into submitting unintended state-changing requests to the application. The vulnerability requires user interaction, such as visiting an attacker-controlled page, but no privileges on the target application. Public disclosure of the exploit technique has occurred through VulDB, raising the risk of opportunistic abuse against exposed instances.
Critical Impact
Attackers can force authenticated users to perform unauthorized actions in student-manage 1.0, potentially altering or deleting student records without consent [CWE-352].
Affected Products
- huang-yk student-manage 1.0
- Deployments cloned from the GitHub Project Repository
- Any instance exposing authenticated session cookies without CSRF protection
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-03-06 - CVE-2025-2042 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-2042
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability stems from missing CSRF protections in huang-yk student-manage 1.0. The application accepts state-changing HTTP requests without validating an anti-CSRF token, request origin, or referer header. Any authenticated user visiting a malicious page can have their browser automatically submit forged requests to the application using their existing session cookies.
This weakness is categorized under [CWE-352]. Because the attack is delivered over the network and only requires the victim to load attacker-controlled content, the barrier to abuse is low. The vulnerability does not lead to code execution, but it enables unauthorized modification of application data.
Root Cause
The application relies on session cookies for authentication without pairing them with anti-CSRF tokens or SameSite cookie enforcement. Endpoints that add, modify, or delete student records accept unauthenticated cross-origin form submissions. Server-side handlers do not verify that the request originated from the application's own UI.
Attack Vector
An attacker crafts an HTML page containing an auto-submitting form or image tag that targets a sensitive endpoint in student-manage. The attacker lures an authenticated administrator or user to open the page through phishing, a forum post, or a compromised third-party site. The victim's browser submits the request with valid session cookies attached, and the server processes the action as legitimate. Technical details are available in the referenced VulDB entry #298786.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-2042
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected create, update, or delete operations in student records without a corresponding user-initiated session action
- HTTP requests to student-manage endpoints with Referer or Origin headers pointing to unrelated external domains
- Spikes in state-changing POST requests from single authenticated sessions within a short timeframe
Detection Strategies
- Inspect web server access logs for POST requests to sensitive endpoints missing the expected Referer header or bearing an unexpected Origin
- Correlate authentication events with subsequent data modifications to identify actions that lack legitimate UI navigation
- Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules to flag cross-origin form submissions targeting student-manage routes
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable verbose audit logging on all create, update, and delete endpoints in the application
- Alert on anomalous administrator activity outside normal working hours or from unusual client fingerprints
- Forward web server and application logs to a centralized analytics platform for retrospective investigation
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-2042
Immediate Actions Required
- Restrict access to student-manage 1.0 instances to trusted internal networks until CSRF protections are added
- Require administrators to log out of the application after each session to reduce the window for CSRF abuse
- Educate users about the risk of opening untrusted links while authenticated to the application
Patch Information
No vendor patch is currently listed in the NVD advisory or referenced VulDB entries for CVE-2025-2042. Because the project is a small open-source repository, administrators should apply the source-level fixes described below directly to their deployments. Track the upstream GitHub Project Repository for any future updates.
Workarounds
- Implement anti-CSRF tokens on every state-changing form and validate them server-side before processing requests
- Set session cookies with the SameSite=Strict or SameSite=Lax attribute to block cross-origin cookie submission
- Validate the Origin and Referer headers on POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE endpoints and reject mismatched values
- Place the application behind a WAF with CSRF signature rules enabled
# Example: enforce SameSite and Secure attributes on session cookies
# (adapt to the framework used by student-manage)
Set-Cookie: session=<value>; Path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=Strict
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
