CVE-2025-34174VulnerabilityPublished 9 Sep 2025Updated 20 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-34174: Netgate pfSense CE · XSS or 'Cross-site Scripting'

Affects Netgate pfSense CESource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · 14% EPSS · CVSS 5.1 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

5.1Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 14.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 96% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Passive
Vulnerable system confidentiality: Low
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: Low
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker requires privileges that provide basic capabilities that are typically limited to settings and resources owned by a single low-privileged user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges has the ability to access only non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: Passive: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires limited interaction by the targeted user with the vulnerable system and the attacker’s payload. These interactions would be considered involuntary and do not require that the user actively subvert protections built into the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the Subsequent System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 9 Sep 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Netgate pfSense CE	Affected =2.3.2	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-34174, organizations should first restrict access to the pfSense web interface to trusted administrators only, using network segmentation, VPNs, or IP whitelisting to reduce exposure. Review and minimize the number of users granted 'WebCfg - Status: Traffic Totals' permissions to limit potential attackers. Implement strict input validation and output encoding on the 'start-day' parameter in the pfSense web interface, either by applying vendor patches when available or by manually sanitizing inputs if feasible. Monitor web interface logs for suspicious input patterns or unusual user activity. Educate administrators about the risks of stored XSS and encourage cautious behavior when interacting with the Status Traffic Totals page. Consider upgrading pfSense to a later version if a patch addressing this vulnerability is released. In the interim, disable or restrict access to the Status Traffic Totals page if possible. Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) or intrusion detection systems (IDS) that can detect and block XSS payloads targeting the pfSense interface. Regularly audit user permissions and conduct vulnerability assessments to detect similar issues.

Description

In pfSense CE /usr/local/www/status_traffic_totals.php, the value of the start-day parameter is not ensured to be a numeric value or sanitized of HTML-related characters/strings before being directly displayed in the input box. This value can be saved as the default value to be displayed to all users when visiting the Status Traffic Totals page, resulting in stored cross-site scripting. The attacker must be authenticated with at least "WebCfg - Status: Traffic Totals" permissions.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-34174 can be significant, particularly for those relying on pfSense CE 2.3.2_7 for perimeter defense, network segmentation, or traffic monitoring. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized execution of scripts in the context of legitimate users, potentially enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or unauthorized configuration changes if combined with other vulnerabilities or misconfigurations. This could degrade network security posture, cause data breaches, or disrupt network operations. Organizations with multiple administrators or users accessing the pfSense web interface are at higher risk, as the stored XSS payload affects all users visiting the vulnerable page. The requirement for authentication and specific permissions limits exposure but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments with less stringent access controls. Additionally, the vulnerability could be leveraged as a foothold for further lateral movement or privilege escalation within the network. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate risk but should not lead to complacency. European critical infrastructure, government agencies, and enterprises using pfSense for network security could face operational and reputational damage if exploited.

CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #1OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation · Architecture and Design
Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages.
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
DOM based XSS Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch (opens in a new tab)
DOM-Based XSS (opens in a new tab)
Reflected XSS (opens in a new tab)
Stored XSS (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 20 Nov 2025, 13:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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