Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

Urgent: Unauthenticated Admin Access Vulnerability Threatens HashTech Project (CVE-2025-65276)

Overview

A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-65276, has been discovered in the open-source HashTech project (version 1.0 up to commit 5919decaff2681dc250e934814fc3a35f6093ee5, dated 2021-07-02). This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to gain full administrative access to the HashTech dashboard. This severe issue stems from a lack of proper authentication checks on the /admin_index.php endpoint.

Technical Details

The root cause of CVE-2025-65276 lies in the absence of authentication mechanisms protecting the /admin_index.php page. This allows any unauthorized user to bypass login procedures and directly access the administrative interface. Specifically, the application fails to verify user credentials before granting access to sensitive administrative functions.

An attacker can simply navigate to /admin_index.php without providing any credentials and gain complete control over the HashTech instance.

CVSS Analysis

Currently, a CVSS score is N/A for CVE-2025-65276. However, due to the severity of the vulnerability (unauthenticated admin access), it is likely to receive a critical CVSS score once calculated. The impact includes complete confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise.

Possible Impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2025-65276 can have devastating consequences:

  • Information Disclosure: Attackers can access and steal sensitive data, including user credentials, order details, and financial information.
  • Data Manipulation: Attackers can modify or delete data, including user accounts, product listings, and payment information.
  • Privilege Escalation: Attackers gain complete control over the HashTech instance, allowing them to perform any action a legitimate administrator could.
  • Denial of Service: Attackers could cripple the system, preventing legitimate users from accessing or using it.

Mitigation and Patch Steps

Unfortunately, since the HashTech project appears inactive (last commit in 2021), an official patch is unlikely.

However, the following mitigation steps are strongly recommended:

  1. Immediate Shutdown: If you are using the vulnerable version of HashTech, the safest course of action is to immediately shut down the instance to prevent potential attacks.
  2. Implement Authentication: If shutting down is not an option, implement your own authentication layer in front of /admin_index.php. This could involve modifying the application code to require a valid session or implementing a reverse proxy with authentication.
  3. Code Review: Carefully review the code, specifically the admin_index.php file and related files, to identify and fix the missing authentication checks.
  4. Consider Migration: Evaluate migrating to a more actively maintained and secure alternative e-commerce or content management system.

References

Cybersecurity specialist and founder of Gowri Shankar Infosec - a professional blog dedicated to sharing actionable insights on cybersecurity, data protection, server administration, and compliance frameworks including SOC 2, PCI DSS, and GDPR.

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