CVE-2025-61778 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2025-61778 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2025-61778: Akka.NET is a .NET port of the Akka project from the Scala / Java community. In all versions of Akka.Remote from v1.2.0 to v1.5.51, TLS could be enabled via our `akka.remote.dot-netty.tcp` transport and this would correctly enforce private key validation on the server-side of inbound connections. Akka.Remote, however, never asked the outbound-connecting client to present ITS certificate - therefore it's possible for untrusted parties to connect to a private key'd Akka.NET cluster and begin communicating with it without any certificate. The issue here is that for certificate-based authentication to work properly, ensuring that all members of the Akka.Remote network are secured with the same private key, Akka.Remote needed to implement mutual TLS. This was not the case before Akka.NET v1.5.52. Those who run Akka.NET inside a private network that they fully control or who were never using TLS in the first place are now affected by the bug. However, those who use TLS to secure their networks must upgrade to Akka.NET V1.5.52 or later. One patch forces "fail fast" semantics if TLS is enabled but the private key is missing or invalid. Previous versions would only check that once connection attempts occurred. The second patch, a critical fix, enforces mutual TLS (mTLS) by default, so both parties must be keyed using the same certificate. As a workaround, avoid exposing the application publicly to avoid the vulnerability having a practical impact on one's application. However, upgrading to version 1.5.52 is still recommended by the maintainers.

CVE-2025-61778 References

External References

• https://getakka.net/articles/remoting/security.html
• https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/pull/7847
• https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/pull/7851
• https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/releases/tag/1.5.52
• https://github.com/akkadotnet/akka.net/security/advisories/GHSA-jhpv-4q4f-43g5

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

• Choosing Message Identifier CAPEC-12 This pattern of attack is defined by the selection of messages distributed via multicast or public information channels that are intended for another client by determining the parameter value assigned to that client. This attack allows the adversary to gain access to potentially privileged information, and to possibly perpetrate other attacks through the distribution means by impersonation. If the channel/message being manipulated is an input rather than output mechanism for the system, (such as a command bus), this style of attack could be used to change the adversary's identifier to more a privileged one.
• Force the System to Reset Values CAPEC-166 An attacker forces the target into a previous state in order to leverage potential weaknesses in the target dependent upon a prior configuration or state-dependent factors. Even in cases where an attacker may not be able to directly control the configuration of the targeted application, they may be able to reset the configuration to a prior state since many applications implement reset functions.
• Communication Channel Manipulation CAPEC-216 An adversary manipulates a setting or parameter on communications channel in order to compromise its security. This can result in information exposure, insertion/removal of information from the communications stream, and/or potentially system compromise.
• Using Unpublished Interfaces or Functionality CAPEC-36 An adversary searches for and invokes interfaces or functionality that the target system designers did not intend to be publicly available. If interfaces fail to authenticate requests, the attacker may be able to invoke functionality they are not authorized for.
• Cross Site Request Forgery CAPEC-62 An attacker crafts malicious web links and distributes them (via web pages, email, etc.), typically in a targeted manner, hoping to induce users to click on the link and execute the malicious action against some third-party application. If successful, the action embedded in the malicious link will be processed and accepted by the targeted application with the users' privilege level. This type of attack leverages the persistence and implicit trust placed in user session cookies by many web applications today. In such an architecture, once the user authenticates to an application and a session cookie is created on the user's system, all following transactions for that session are authenticated using that cookie including potential actions initiated by an attacker and simply "riding" the existing session cookie.

Other 5 Recently Published CVEs Vulnerabilities

• CVE-2025-59452 – The YoSmart YoLink API through 2025-10-02 uses an endpoint URL that is derived from a device's MAC address along with an MD5 hash of non-secret inf...
• CVE-2025-59451 – The YoSmart YoLink application through 2025-10-02 has session tokens with unexpectedly long lifetimes.
• CVE-2025-59450 – The YoSmart YoLink Smart Hub firmware 0382 is unencrypted, and data extracted from it can be used to determine network access credentials.
• CVE-2025-59449 – The YoSmart YoLink MQTT broker through 2025-10-02 does not enforce sufficient authorization controls to prevent cross-account attacks, allowing an ...
• CVE-2025-59448 – Components of the YoSmart YoLink ecosystem through 2025-10-02 leverage unencrypted MQTT to communicate over the internet. An attacker with the abil...