CVE-2025-59154
Openfire allows potential identity spoofing via unsafe CN parsing
No known exploitation. EPSS puts it in the 13th percentile. A vendor fix is available.
What to do
The vendor has published a fix. Version details are below where the sources state them.
What it is
From the CVE record
Openfire is an XMPP server licensed under the Open Source Apache License. Openfire’s SASL EXTERNAL mechanism for client TLS authentication contains a vulnerability in how it extracts user identities from X.509 certificates. Instead of parsing the structured ASN.1 data, the code calls X509Certificate.getSubjectDN().getName() and applies a regex to look for CN=. This method produces a provider-dependent string that does not escape special characters. In SunJSSE (sun.security.x509.X500Name), for example, commas and equals signs inside attribute values are not escaped. As a result, a malicious certificate can embed CN= inside another attribute value (e.g. OU="CN=admin,"). The regex will incorrectly interpret this as a legitimate Common Name and extract admin. If SASL EXTERNAL is enabled and configured to map CNs to user accounts, this allows the attacker to impersonate another user. The fix is included in Openfire 5.0.2 and 5.1.0.
In plain language
No plain-language summary for this CVE yet.
Exploitation
Where each signal puts this CVE on the scale from published to confirmed exploited.
- CISA KEV
Not in the catalog. CISA has not confirmed exploitation.
- Public exploits
No public exploit or proof of concept found in the sources we track.
- EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the 13th percentile of scored CVEs.
Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST.org. A probability, not a confirmation.
Lifecycle
6 events over 283 days, from the signal feeds we watch.
- OpenVAS check added
- Patch availablerecord updated
- Publishedweakness classified, att&ck mapped
Affected products
Technical detail
CVSS 3.1 vector
Open in the CVSS calculatorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Scored 5.9 by NVD.
How it is reached
- Attack Vector NetworkExploitable remotely over the network without any special conditions
- Attack Complexity HighRequires specific conditions like a race condition or non-default configuration
- Privileges Required HighRequires admin or elevated privileges
- User Interaction NoneNo user interaction needed — fully automated exploitation
Scope
- Scope UnchangedImpact is limited to the vulnerable component itself
Impact if exploited
- Confidentiality HighTotal information disclosure — all data in the component is compromised
- Integrity HighTotal loss of integrity — attacker can modify any data in the component
- Availability NoneNo availability impact
Weaknesses
ATT&CK techniques
Mapped from the weaknesses above (CWE to ATT&CK), not observed in attacks.
- Initial AccessT1078Valid Accountsmedium confidence
Sources
References in the record
- github.com/igniterealtime/Openfire/blob/8d073dda36905da0fdee7cb623c025a01a5cbf6b/xmppserver/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/util/cert/CNCertificateIdentityMapping.java
- github.com/igniterealtime/Openfire/security/advisories/GHSA-w252-645g-87mp
- igniterealtime.atlassian.net/browse/OF-3122
And 4 more references. See all after sign-in
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