CVE-2025-27419 Overview
CVE-2025-27419 is a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability affecting WeGIA, an open source Web Manager for Institutions with a focus on Portuguese language users. This vulnerability allows any unauthenticated user to cause the server to become unresponsive by performing aggressive spidering. The vulnerability stems from recursive crawling of dynamically generated URLs and insufficient handling of large volumes of requests, enabling attackers to exhaust server resources without authentication.
Critical Impact
Unauthenticated attackers can render WeGIA instances completely unresponsive through resource exhaustion, causing service disruption for all legitimate users and potentially affecting downstream dependent systems.
Affected Products
- WeGIA versions prior to 3.2.16
- WeGIA Web Manager for Institutions
- All WeGIA installations accessible via network without rate limiting
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-03-03 - CVE-2025-27419 published to NVD
- 2025-03-07 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-27419
Vulnerability Analysis
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling). The core issue lies in WeGIA's failure to implement proper request rate limiting and resource allocation controls, particularly in the installer components. When an attacker initiates aggressive automated crawling (spidering) against a WeGIA instance, the application continues to process requests without throttling, eventually consuming all available server resources.
The vulnerability is particularly severe because it requires no authentication to exploit. Any network-accessible WeGIA installation can be targeted, and the recursive nature of the crawling against dynamically generated URLs amplifies the resource consumption exponentially.
Root Cause
The root cause of this vulnerability is twofold:
Missing Exit Statement After Redirect: The installer components (instalador/index.php and instalador/instalador.php) perform a redirect when configuration already exists but fail to terminate script execution with an exit() statement. This allows continued processing of requests even after a redirect header is sent.
Insufficient Resource Controls: The application lacks proper rate limiting and request throttling mechanisms, allowing unlimited concurrent connections and recursive URL crawling to exhaust server resources.
Attack Vector
The attack is network-based and can be executed by any unauthenticated user with network access to the WeGIA installation. An attacker can use automated web crawling tools to:
- Discover dynamically generated URLs within the WeGIA application
- Recursively follow and request these URLs at high volume
- Exploit the missing exit() statements in installer components to cause continued server-side processing
- Exhaust server resources (CPU, memory, connection pools) until the service becomes unresponsive
The following patch addresses the vulnerability by adding proper script termination after redirects:
$hasConfig = file_exists("../config.php");
if ($hasConfig){
header("Location: ../html/home.php");
+ exit();
}
?>
<html>
Source: GitHub Commit
The second patch in instalador/instalador.php adds similar protection:
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
+$hasConfig = file_exists("../config.php");
+ if ($hasConfig){
+ header("Location: ../html/home.php");
+ exit();
+ }
?>
<html>
Source: GitHub Commit
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-27419
Indicators of Compromise
- Unusual spike in HTTP requests targeting /instalador/index.php or /instalador/instalador.php
- High volume of requests from single IP addresses or IP ranges in short time periods
- Server resource exhaustion (CPU spikes, memory depletion) correlated with web traffic
- Recursive access patterns to dynamically generated URLs in web server logs
Detection Strategies
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block aggressive crawling patterns
- Monitor web server access logs for abnormal request rates and recursive URL access patterns
- Deploy intrusion detection systems (IDS) with signatures for DoS attack patterns
- Configure server-side monitoring to alert on resource exhaustion events correlated with HTTP traffic
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable real-time monitoring of web server connection counts and request rates
- Set up alerts for CPU and memory utilization thresholds on servers hosting WeGIA
- Monitor for repeated access to installer endpoints after initial configuration is complete
- Implement centralized logging to correlate request patterns across multiple server instances
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-27419
Immediate Actions Required
- Upgrade WeGIA to version 3.2.16 or later immediately
- Implement rate limiting at the web server or load balancer level
- Consider temporarily restricting access to installer directories if not needed
- Review and harden web server configuration to limit concurrent connections per IP
Patch Information
The vulnerability has been fixed in WeGIA version 3.2.16. The fix adds proper exit() statements after redirect headers in the installer components, ensuring script execution terminates appropriately. Users should update to version 3.2.16 or later by following the standard WeGIA upgrade procedures.
For detailed patch information, see the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-9rp6-4mqp-g4p8 and the GitHub Commit.
Workarounds
- Implement rate limiting using web server modules (e.g., mod_ratelimit for Apache, limit_req for Nginx)
- Block or restrict access to the /instalador/ directory if the installation is already configured
- Deploy a reverse proxy or WAF with DoS protection capabilities in front of WeGIA
- Configure connection limits per IP address at the network or application level
# Nginx rate limiting configuration example
http {
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=wegia_limit:10m rate=10r/s;
server {
location / {
limit_req zone=wegia_limit burst=20 nodelay;
# ... other configuration
}
# Block installer directory if not needed
location /instalador/ {
deny all;
return 403;
}
}
}
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
