Administrator lockout via non-atomic user deletion
Published May 30, 2025 · Updated May 30, 2025
Race condition in FreeScout before 1.8.181 allows remote authenticated users with administrator access to delete every administrator. The delete_user branch of UsersController::ajax counts administrators and then deletes the requested account without an atomic guard, so concurrent requests can each pass the last-administrator check. An administrator must submit concurrent deletion requests for different accounts; success can remove every administrator account and eliminate application administration until recovery.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in FreeScout before 1.8.181 allows remote authenticated users with administrator access to delete every administrator. The delete_user branch of UsersController::ajax counts administrators and then deletes the requested account without an atomic guard, so concurrent requests can each pass the last-administrator check. An administrator must submit concurrent deletion requests for different accounts; success can remove every administrator account and eliminate application administration until recovery.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-48880
- Published
- May 30, 2025
- Updated
- May 30, 2025
- Vendor
- FreeScout
- Product
- FreeScout
- Classifications
- CWE-362, T1531
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 30, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 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=< 1.8.181
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
- Concurrent administrator-deletion HTTP request sequenceproof of concept · demonstrated
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