CVE-2025-2611: ICTBroadcast RCE Vulnerability

CVE-2025-2611 Overview

CVE-2025-2611 is a critical command injection vulnerability in the ICTBroadcast application that allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary shell commands on the server. The vulnerability exists in the session handling mechanism, where session cookie data is unsafely passed to shell processing without proper sanitization. This allows an attacker to inject malicious shell commands into a session cookie, which are then executed with the privileges of the web server process.

Critical Impact

Unauthenticated remote code execution allows attackers to completely compromise ICTBroadcast servers without requiring any credentials, potentially leading to full system takeover, data theft, and lateral movement within the network.

Affected Products

• ICTBroadcast version 7.4 and below
• ICTBroadcast unified communications platform deployments

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-08-05 - CVE-2025-2611 published to NVD
• 2025-11-04 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-2611

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-78 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command), commonly known as OS Command Injection. The flaw stems from the ICTBroadcast application's improper handling of session cookie data during server-side processing.

When the application processes session cookies, it passes the cookie values directly to shell commands without adequate input validation or sanitization. This design flaw creates a direct pathway for attackers to inject arbitrary operating system commands that execute in the context of the web server process. The network-accessible nature of this vulnerability combined with no authentication requirement makes it particularly dangerous for exposed deployments.

The existence of a Metasploit module pull request indicates active interest in weaponizing this vulnerability, significantly increasing the risk of exploitation in the wild.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-2611 lies in the application's failure to properly sanitize user-controllable input before incorporating it into shell commands. Specifically, the session cookie handling code passes cookie values directly to shell processing functions without escaping or validating special characters such as semicolons, pipes, backticks, or command substitution sequences.

This represents a fundamental secure coding violation where untrusted user input flows directly into a security-sensitive operation (command execution) without any intermediate sanitization layer.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for CVE-2025-2611 is network-based and requires no authentication. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by:

1. Crafting a malicious HTTP request with a specially crafted session cookie containing shell metacharacters and commands
2. Sending the request to a vulnerable ICTBroadcast server
3. The server processes the session cookie and passes it to shell execution
4. The injected commands execute with the privileges of the web server process

The attack can be performed remotely against any network-accessible ICTBroadcast installation running version 7.4 or below. The unauthenticated nature means no prior access or credentials are needed, making internet-facing installations particularly vulnerable.

For technical exploitation details, refer to the VulnCheck Advisory and the Metasploit module pull request.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-2611

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual or malformed session cookie values containing shell metacharacters (;, |, $(...), backticks)
• Unexpected child processes spawned by the web server process (e.g., /bin/sh, /bin/bash, cmd.exe)
• Web server logs showing requests with abnormally long or encoded cookie values
• Evidence of reverse shell connections or outbound network activity from the web server

Detection Strategies

• Monitor HTTP request headers for session cookies containing shell command injection patterns such as command separators, pipes, or command substitution syntax
• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block requests with suspicious cookie payloads
• Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to detect anomalous process execution chains originating from web server processes
• Review web server access logs for requests with unusual cookie lengths or encoding patterns

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging of HTTP headers including cookie values for forensic analysis
• Configure alerting for any shell process spawned as a child of the web application process
• Monitor network connections from the ICTBroadcast server for unexpected outbound traffic that could indicate command-and-control communication
• Implement file integrity monitoring on critical system directories to detect post-exploitation modifications

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-2611

Immediate Actions Required

• Identify all ICTBroadcast installations running version 7.4 or below in your environment
• Restrict network access to ICTBroadcast servers by implementing firewall rules to limit exposure to trusted networks only
• If possible, take vulnerable ICTBroadcast instances offline until patches can be applied
• Review server logs for evidence of exploitation attempts or successful compromise

Patch Information

Contact ICTBroadcast vendor (ICT Innovations) for updated software versions that address this vulnerability. Upgrade to a version newer than 7.4 that includes proper input sanitization for session cookie handling. For the latest security information, refer to the VulnCheck Blog post on this vulnerability.

Workarounds

• Place ICTBroadcast servers behind a reverse proxy or WAF configured to sanitize cookie headers and block requests containing shell metacharacters
• Implement network segmentation to isolate ICTBroadcast servers from critical infrastructure and limit lateral movement potential
• If the application supports it, disable or modify the vulnerable session handling mechanism through configuration changes
• Monitor and restrict outbound network connections from the server to prevent reverse shell establishment

# Example WAF rule to block suspicious cookie patterns (ModSecurity)
SecRule REQUEST_COOKIES "@rx [;\|\`\$\(\)]" \
    "id:1001,phase:1,deny,status:403,msg:'Potential command injection in cookie'"