Cache poisoning via body-bearing OPTIONS requests
Published Aug 29, 2025 · Updated Aug 29, 2025
HTTP request smuggling in AkamaiGHost before 2025-07-21 allows remote attackers to poison caches via body-bearing OPTIONS requests. Akamai proxies forward the request body, but a noncompliant origin can leave it unread on the persistent origin connection, where a later request causes the origin to parse the residual bytes as a second request. Exploitation requires an RFC-noncompliant origin sharing a persistent proxy connection, and the resulting request desynchronization can alter cached responses.
Summary
What happened
HTTP request smuggling in AkamaiGHost before 2025-07-21 allows remote attackers to poison caches via body-bearing OPTIONS requests. Akamai proxies forward the request body, but a noncompliant origin can leave it unread on the persistent origin connection, where a later request causes the origin to parse the residual bytes as a second request. Exploitation requires an RFC-noncompliant origin sharing a persistent proxy connection, and the resulting request desynchronization can alter cached responses.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-54142
- Published
- Aug 29, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 29, 2025
- Vendor
- Akamai
- Product
- AkamaiGHost
- Classifications
- CWE-444, CAPEC-33, T1190
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 29, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 29, 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=0 <2025-07-21
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