Traffic redirection via trusted forged Host headers
Published Jun 30, 2025 · Updated Jun 30, 2025
Host header injection in Hotspot Shield VPN 12.9.2 allows remote attackers to redirect tunneled HTTP requests with a forged Host header. The client's outgoing-request handler trusts the supplied Host header when selecting where an HTTP request is redirected or forwarded instead of preserving the intended destination. Exploitation requires traffic through an active VPN tunnel and passive user activity; the bounded effects are an open redirect or delivery to attacker-controlled infrastructure.
Summary
What happened
Host header injection in Hotspot Shield VPN 12.9.2 allows remote attackers to redirect tunneled HTTP requests with a forged Host header. The client's outgoing-request handler trusts the supplied Host header when selecting where an HTTP request is redirected or forwarded instead of preserving the intended destination. Exploitation requires traffic through an active VPN tunnel and passive user activity; the bounded effects are an open redirect or delivery to attacker-controlled infrastructure.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-40710
- Published
- Jun 30, 2025
- Updated
- Jun 30, 2025
- Vendor
- Hotspot Shield
- Product
- Hotspot Shield VPN
- Classifications
- CWE-74, T1565.002
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 30, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=12.9.2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo