CVE-2025-70039: Linagora Twake RCE Vulnerability

CVE-2025-70039 Overview

CVE-2025-70039 is a critical OS command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) discovered in Linagora Twake v2023.Q1.1223. Twake is an open-source collaboration platform designed for secure team communication and productivity. The vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary operating system commands on the server due to improper neutralization of special elements used in OS commands.

Critical Impact

This vulnerability enables unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary system commands on affected Twake instances, potentially leading to complete server compromise, data exfiltration, and lateral movement within the network.

Affected Products

• Linagora Twake v2023.Q1.1223
• Earlier versions of Twake may also be affected

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-03-09 - CVE-2025-70039 published to NVD
• 2026-03-11 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-70039

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability stems from CWE-78: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command (OS Command Injection). The affected Twake application fails to properly sanitize user-controlled input before passing it to system shell commands. When user input containing shell metacharacters (such as ;, |, &, $(), or backticks) reaches vulnerable code paths, the application interprets these as command separators or substitutions, allowing injection of arbitrary commands.

The network-accessible nature of this flaw means attackers can exploit it remotely without requiring authentication or user interaction. Successful exploitation grants attackers the ability to execute commands with the same privileges as the Twake application process, typically resulting in full confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise of the affected system.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient input validation and sanitization in code paths that construct OS commands dynamically. The application directly incorporates user-supplied data into shell command strings without properly escaping or validating special characters. This allows attackers to break out of the intended command context and inject additional malicious commands.

Proper mitigation would require either using parameterized command execution methods that don't invoke a shell interpreter, or implementing strict allowlist-based input validation to reject any input containing shell metacharacters.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires no privileges or user interaction. An attacker can craft malicious HTTP requests to the vulnerable Twake endpoints, embedding OS command injection payloads within request parameters. The injected commands execute on the server with the privileges of the web application process.

Attack scenarios may include:

• Injecting commands to establish reverse shells for persistent access
• Exfiltrating sensitive configuration files and credentials
• Deploying cryptocurrency miners or other malware
• Pivoting to other systems within the internal network
• Modifying or destroying application data

Technical details and proof-of-concept information are available in the GitHub Gist PoC published by the security researcher.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-70039

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual process spawns from the Twake application process (e.g., sh, bash, cmd.exe, wget, curl, nc)
• Outbound network connections from the Twake server to unexpected destinations
• Web server access logs containing shell metacharacters in request parameters (;, |, &&, $(), backticks)
• Unexpected files created in the web application directory or /tmp
• Anomalous CPU or memory usage indicating cryptominer deployment

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common OS command injection patterns in HTTP requests
• Implement application-layer monitoring to alert on shell metacharacters in user input fields
• Configure endpoint detection to monitor for suspicious child process creation from web server processes
• Analyze web server logs for patterns indicative of command injection attempts

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable verbose logging on Twake application servers and centralize logs for analysis
• Monitor for unusual outbound connections from application servers using network flow analysis
• Implement file integrity monitoring on critical system directories
• Configure alerts for new user accounts or privilege changes on affected systems

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-70039

Immediate Actions Required

• Identify all Twake v2023.Q1.1223 deployments in your environment and assess exposure
• Restrict network access to affected Twake instances using firewall rules until patched
• Monitor affected systems for signs of compromise using the indicators listed above
• Consider temporarily taking affected instances offline if they are internet-facing and cannot be patched immediately

Patch Information

Organizations should check the Twake Project Repository and Linagora GitHub Organization for security updates and patched versions. Apply vendor-provided patches as soon as they become available. If no patch is currently available, implement the workarounds below and monitor vendor channels for updates.

Workarounds

• Place a Web Application Firewall (WAF) in front of Twake instances with rules blocking OS command injection patterns
• Implement network segmentation to isolate Twake servers from critical infrastructure
• Restrict Twake server network access to only necessary internal systems and block outbound internet connectivity where possible
• If feasible, deploy Twake in a containerized environment with restricted system call capabilities using seccomp or AppArmor profiles

# Example WAF rule pattern for command injection detection (ModSecurity)
SecRule ARGS "@rx (?:;|\||&&|\$\(|`)" \
    "id:1001,\
    phase:2,\
    deny,\
    status:403,\
    msg:'Potential OS Command Injection Attempt',\
    log,\
    auditlog"