CVE-2025-44012 is a high-severity vulnerability classified under CWE-770, which pertains to the allocation of resources without limits or throttling. This vulnerability affects QNAP Systems Inc.'s Qsync Central product, specifically version 5.0.0. A remote attacker who has obtained a valid user account can exploit this flaw to allocate resources excessively without any imposed limits or throttling mechanisms. This uncontrolled resource consumption can lead to denial of service conditions by preventing other systems, applications, or processes from accessing the same type of resource. The vulnerability does not require user interaction and can be exploited remotely with low attack complexity and no privileges beyond a user account. The CVSS 4.0 base score is 7.1, reflecting a high severity due to the potential for significant impact on availability. The vulnerability was fixed in Qsync Central version 5.0.0.2 released on July 31, 2025. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild. The vulnerability's root cause is the lack of resource allocation limits or throttling controls, which allows a malicious user to monopolize resources, potentially causing service degradation or outages for legitimate users and processes relying on the same resources. This can disrupt business operations, data synchronization, and availability of critical services dependent on Qsync Central.

For European organizations using Qsync Central, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to service availability and operational continuity. Qsync Central is typically used for file synchronization and sharing within enterprise environments, so exploitation could disrupt collaboration and data access across multiple departments or sites. The denial of service caused by resource exhaustion could lead to downtime, impacting productivity and potentially causing financial losses. Organizations handling sensitive or critical data may face increased operational risk, especially if backup or synchronization services are interrupted. Additionally, since exploitation requires only a user account, insider threats or compromised credentials could be leveraged to trigger the attack, increasing the risk profile. The lack of known exploits in the wild suggests limited immediate threat, but the high severity and ease of exploitation warrant proactive mitigation. European organizations with distributed teams or remote workforces relying on Qsync Central for file synchronization are particularly vulnerable to disruptions caused by this vulnerability.

European organizations should immediately verify their Qsync Central version and upgrade to version 5.0.0.2 or later, where the vulnerability is patched. Beyond patching, organizations should implement strict user account management policies, including enforcing strong authentication mechanisms and monitoring for unusual resource consumption patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. Network segmentation and access controls should limit Qsync Central access to authorized users and systems only. Implementing resource usage monitoring and alerting on Qsync Central servers can help detect abnormal resource allocation early. Additionally, organizations should conduct regular audits of user accounts to remove or disable inactive or unnecessary accounts to reduce the attack surface. Employing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for user accounts can further reduce the risk of account compromise. Finally, organizations should prepare incident response plans that include steps to identify and mitigate resource exhaustion attacks to minimize downtime.