Management access via password-comparison timing leak
Published Jan 26, 2026 · Updated Jan 26, 2026
Observable timing discrepancy in Hiawatha Webserver 8.5 through 11.7 allows local users to recover the Tomahawk password. The handle_admin function hashes each supplied password with MD5, then compares its hexadecimal digest with the configured hash using an early-exit string comparison that exposes matching-prefix length through response timing. Tomahawk must be compiled in, configured, and reachable locally; successful password inference grants access to the management client.
Summary
What happened
Observable timing discrepancy in Hiawatha Webserver 8.5 through 11.7 allows local users to recover the Tomahawk password. The handle_admin function hashes each supplied password with MD5, then compares its hexadecimal digest with the configured hash using an early-exit string comparison that exposes matching-prefix length through response timing. Tomahawk must be compiled in, configured, and reachable locally; successful password inference grants access to the management client.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-57784
- Published
- Jan 26, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Hiawatha
- Product
- Hiawatha Webserver
- Classifications
- CWE-208, T1110.001
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 26, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 26, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=11.7 <=8.5
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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