CVE-2025-46498 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the nghialuu Zalo Official Live Chat product, affecting versions up to 1.0.0. CSRF vulnerabilities occur when an attacker tricks an authenticated user into submitting a malicious request to a web application without their consent or knowledge. In this case, the vulnerability allows an attacker to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of a legitimate user within the Zalo Official Live Chat environment. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-352, which highlights weaknesses in the implementation of anti-CSRF protections. The lack of effective CSRF tokens or other verification mechanisms in the affected versions enables attackers to craft malicious web requests that, when executed by an authenticated user’s browser, can manipulate chat settings, send messages, or perform other privileged operations within the live chat interface. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the presence of this vulnerability poses a risk to the integrity and confidentiality of communications handled by the Zalo Official Live Chat platform. The product is commonly used to facilitate real-time customer support and engagement on websites, meaning that exploitation could lead to unauthorized message injection, session manipulation, or unauthorized changes to chat configurations. Given the nature of CSRF, exploitation requires the victim to be authenticated and to interact with a malicious website or link, which then triggers the unauthorized request. The vulnerability was published on April 24, 2025, and while no patches or fixes have been linked yet, the issue has been recognized and assigned a CVE identifier, indicating that remediation efforts are likely forthcoming.

For European organizations using Zalo Official Live Chat, this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized actions being performed within their customer engagement channels. Potential impacts include manipulation of chat conversations, unauthorized disclosure or alteration of sensitive customer information, and disruption of customer service operations. This could damage organizational reputation, lead to loss of customer trust, and potentially expose personal data subject to GDPR regulations, resulting in legal and financial penalties. Additionally, attackers could leverage the vulnerability to inject misleading or malicious messages, potentially facilitating social engineering attacks or spreading misinformation. The integrity and availability of customer support services could be compromised, affecting business continuity. Since exploitation requires user authentication and interaction, the risk is somewhat mitigated by user behavior; however, targeted phishing or social engineering campaigns could increase the likelihood of successful exploitation. Organizations relying heavily on Zalo Official Live Chat for critical customer interactions, especially in sectors like finance, healthcare, or e-commerce, may face heightened risks due to the sensitivity of the data exchanged.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Immediately monitor for updates or patches from the vendor nghialuu and apply them as soon as they become available. 2) Implement additional CSRF protections at the web application firewall (WAF) level, such as enforcing strict origin and referer header checks to block unauthorized cross-origin requests targeting the live chat interface. 3) Educate users and customer service agents about the risks of phishing and social engineering attacks that could trigger CSRF exploits, emphasizing cautious behavior when clicking on links or visiting untrusted websites while authenticated. 4) Where possible, restrict the use of Zalo Official Live Chat to trusted networks or IP ranges to reduce exposure to external threats. 5) Employ Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the execution of untrusted scripts that could facilitate CSRF attacks. 6) Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on the live chat functionality to identify and remediate any additional weaknesses. 7) Consider implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for access to administrative interfaces of the chat system to reduce the risk of session hijacking or unauthorized access. These measures, combined with vendor patching, will help reduce the attack surface and mitigate the risk posed by this CSRF vulnerability.