CVE-2025-32094 is a medium-severity vulnerability classified under CWE-444, which involves inconsistent interpretation of HTTP requests, commonly known as HTTP Request/Response Smuggling. This specific issue affects AkamaiGhost, a component used within the Akamai Content Delivery Network (CDN) platform prior to the patch date of March 26, 2025. The vulnerability arises when a client sends an HTTP/1.x OPTIONS request containing an "Expect: 100-continue" header combined with obsolete line folding techniques. Under these conditions, two in-path Akamai servers may interpret the request differently, creating a discrepancy that allows an attacker to smuggle a second HTTP request within the body of the original request. This smuggled request can bypass security controls, potentially leading to request hijacking or manipulation. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.0, indicating a medium severity level, with the vector string AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N. This means the attack can be performed remotely without privileges or user interaction but requires high attack complexity. The impact is limited to integrity, with no direct confidentiality or availability impact. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability's root cause is the inconsistent parsing of HTTP headers and request bodies between Akamai's servers, which is a classic HTTP request smuggling scenario but triggered by a specific combination of HTTP methods, headers, and obsolete formatting.

For European organizations relying on Akamai's CDN services, this vulnerability could allow attackers to bypass security controls by injecting unauthorized HTTP requests. Although the direct impact is limited to integrity (e.g., request manipulation), this can facilitate further attacks such as web cache poisoning, cross-site scripting, or unauthorized access to internal resources if combined with other vulnerabilities. Given Akamai's widespread use among European enterprises for web acceleration and security, exploitation could undermine trust in web applications and services, potentially leading to reputational damage and indirect financial losses. However, the high attack complexity and lack of known exploits reduce immediate risk. Organizations in sectors with high web traffic and sensitive data, such as finance, e-commerce, and government, may face more significant risks if attackers chain this vulnerability with others.

European organizations using AkamaiGhost should monitor Akamai's official advisories for patches and apply them promptly once available. In the interim, they should work with Akamai support to verify if any configuration changes can mitigate the risk, such as disabling support for obsolete line folding or strict validation of HTTP headers and methods. Web application firewalls (WAFs) should be configured to detect and block anomalous HTTP requests, especially those with unusual header combinations like "Expect: 100-continue" in OPTIONS requests. Network monitoring should focus on detecting unusual HTTP request patterns indicative of smuggling attempts. Additionally, organizations should conduct internal testing to simulate such requests and verify that their CDN and backend infrastructure handle them consistently. Finally, educating developers and security teams about HTTP request smuggling risks and ensuring secure coding practices around HTTP parsing can reduce the attack surface.