CVE-2025-3569: Db-hospital-drug Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2025-3569 Overview

CVE-2025-3569 is an improper authorization vulnerability [CWE-266] in JamesZBL db-hospital-drug version 1.0, an open-source hospital drug management application. The flaw resides in unspecified functionality within the ShiroConfig.java file, which handles Apache Shiro security configuration. An authenticated remote attacker with low privileges can manipulate authorization checks to access resources outside their intended permission scope. The exploit has been publicly disclosed, increasing the likelihood of opportunistic abuse. The vendor was contacted before public disclosure but did not respond.

Critical Impact
Authenticated remote attackers can bypass authorization controls in ShiroConfig.java to access restricted functionality within the hospital drug management application.

Affected Products

JamesZBL db-hospital-drug 1.0
Component: ShiroConfig.java (Apache Shiro configuration)
Deployments exposing the application to network-reachable users

Discovery Timeline

2025-04-14 - CVE-2025-3569 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-3569

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability originates in ShiroConfig.java, a Java class that defines Apache Shiro filter chains and access control rules for the db-hospital-drug application. Improper authorization [CWE-266] occurs when the configuration grants permissions or resource access to users who should not possess them. The flaw is exploitable over the network and requires only low privileges, meaning any authenticated user can leverage it.

Successful exploitation allows attackers to invoke functionality reserved for higher-privileged roles. In a hospital drug management context, this can expose patient records, drug inventories, or administrative endpoints. The confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact is limited but present across all three dimensions.

Root Cause

The root cause is a misconfiguration of Shiro filter chains within ShiroConfig.java. Filter rules likely fail to enforce role or permission checks on protected URL patterns, or use overly permissive wildcards such as anon filters on paths that should require authentication or specific authorities. Because Shiro evaluates filter chains in the order defined, an incorrect ordering or missing rule allows requests to bypass authorization logic entirely.

Attack Vector

An attacker authenticates to the application using any valid low-privilege account. The attacker then issues HTTP requests directly to endpoints protected only by the flawed Shiro configuration. Because the filter chain does not correctly validate the caller's role, the server processes the request and returns data or executes actions that should be restricted. No user interaction is required beyond the attacker's own session.

See the GitHub vulnerability documentation and VulDB report #304610 for reproduction details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-3569

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP requests from low-privileged user sessions targeting administrative or management endpoints of db-hospital-drug.
Access log entries showing successful (HTTP 200) responses to URLs that should return 401 or 403 for the requesting role.
Unexpected reads or writes to drug inventory, user management, or patient data tables originating from non-administrator accounts.

Detection Strategies

Review Shiro filter chain definitions in ShiroConfig.java against the intended role-to-URL mapping and flag discrepancies.
Correlate application authentication logs with backend database queries to identify authorization boundary violations.
Deploy runtime application self-protection or WAF rules that verify role claims against requested URL patterns.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable verbose logging on Shiro AuthorizationFilter and forward events to a centralized log platform for anomaly analysis.
Alert on repeated 200-OK responses to sensitive endpoints from accounts that historically only accessed low-privilege paths.
Track privilege-sensitive API calls per user role and baseline normal behavior to detect deviations.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-3569

Immediate Actions Required

Restrict network exposure of db-hospital-drug to trusted internal segments until the configuration is remediated.
Audit all accounts and disable low-privilege users that are not actively required.
Manually review ShiroConfig.java and add explicit roles[] or perms[] filters to every non-public URL pattern.

Patch Information

No vendor patch is available. The maintainer did not respond to disclosure attempts recorded in the VulDB submission #549920. Organizations running this application should treat it as unmaintained and plan migration to a supported alternative or maintain a locally patched fork with corrected Shiro filter chains.

Workarounds

Place the application behind a reverse proxy that enforces path-based access control aligned with intended user roles.
Modify ShiroConfig.java to replace permissive anon entries with role-specific filters and redeploy the WAR.
Segment the deployment so that only authenticated hospital staff on trusted networks can reach the application.

bash

# Example: reverse proxy restriction for administrative paths
location ~ ^/(admin|user|drug/manage) {
    allow 10.10.0.0/24;   # trusted admin subnet
    deny all;
    proxy_pass http://db-hospital-drug-backend;
}