CVE-2025-1451 is a resource exhaustion vulnerability classified under CWE-770, affecting the parisneo/lollms-webui product. The vulnerability arises because the server does not impose limits or validate the length and character composition of multipart boundaries in HTTP file upload requests. Multipart boundaries are delimiters used in multipart/form-data requests to separate parts of the payload. An attacker can exploit this by sending requests with excessively long multipart boundaries containing characters other than hyphens (e.g., '4', 'a'), which the server fails to properly restrict. This leads to uncontrolled allocation of server resources such as memory or CPU cycles during request parsing, ultimately causing denial of service due to resource exhaustion. A previous patch attempted to mitigate this by blocking hyphen characters appended to the boundary, but this fix was incomplete as other characters remain exploitable. The vulnerability requires no privileges or user interaction and can be triggered remotely over the network. The CVSS v3.0 score of 7.5 reflects the ease of exploitation and the high impact on availability, though confidentiality and integrity remain unaffected. No known exploits have been reported in the wild yet, but the incomplete patch and straightforward exploitation vector make this a significant threat to affected deployments.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk of denial of service, potentially disrupting critical services or applications relying on parisneo/lollms-webui. Service unavailability can impact business operations, customer trust, and compliance with service-level agreements. Sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and technology firms that utilize this software for web interfaces or file upload functionalities may experience operational downtime. The lack of confidentiality or integrity impact limits data breach concerns, but availability disruptions can cascade into broader operational risks. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely without authentication, increasing the threat surface. Given the incomplete patch, organizations may face ongoing exposure until a comprehensive fix is applied. This could also affect cloud-hosted or managed services using the vulnerable software, amplifying the potential impact across multiple tenants or clients.

Organizations should implement strict validation of multipart boundaries in HTTP requests, enforcing maximum length limits and restricting allowed characters beyond just hyphens. Web application firewalls (WAFs) can be configured with custom rules to detect and block requests with suspiciously long or malformed multipart boundaries. Rate limiting and connection throttling should be applied to reduce the risk of resource exhaustion from repeated exploit attempts. Monitoring server resource usage and anomalous request patterns can provide early detection of exploitation attempts. It is critical to track updates from the vendor and apply any forthcoming patches that comprehensively address this vulnerability. If no official patch is available, consider deploying reverse proxies or API gateways that sanitize multipart requests before reaching the backend. Additionally, conducting penetration testing and fuzzing on file upload endpoints can help identify residual weaknesses. Finally, maintaining robust incident response plans to quickly mitigate DoS events will reduce operational impact.