CVE-2025-48187 is a critical vulnerability identified in the infiniflow RAGFlow product, specifically affecting versions up to 0.18.1. The vulnerability arises from improper restriction of excessive authentication attempts (CWE-307), allowing attackers to perform brute-force attacks against six-digit email verification codes used during account registration, login, and password reset processes. Because there is no rate limiting or throttling mechanism implemented, an attacker can systematically try all possible combinations of the six-digit codes (ranging from 000000 to 999999) without being blocked or delayed. This flaw enables arbitrary account takeover, allowing unauthorized access to user accounts, potentially leading to data exposure, impersonation, and unauthorized actions within the application. The vulnerability does not require any prior authentication or user interaction, and the attack can be conducted remotely over the network. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.1 reflects the high impact on confidentiality and integrity, with no impact on availability. The vulnerability affects the core authentication mechanism of RAGFlow, a product developed by infiniflow, which is used for managing user accounts and authentication flows. No patches or fixes have been published at the time of this report, and no known exploits are currently observed in the wild, though the ease of exploitation and critical impact make it a high-risk issue.

For European organizations using infiniflow RAGFlow, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to user account security and data confidentiality. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive user data, manipulation of account settings, and potential lateral movement within organizational systems if RAGFlow is integrated with other internal services. This could result in data breaches, regulatory non-compliance (e.g., GDPR violations), reputational damage, and financial losses. The lack of rate limiting means automated attacks can be executed at scale, increasing the likelihood of compromise. Organizations relying on RAGFlow for critical authentication workflows may face operational disruptions if attackers leverage compromised accounts to escalate privileges or disrupt services. Additionally, the vulnerability could be exploited to reset passwords of legitimate users, locking them out and causing denial of service at the user level. Given the criticality and ease of exploitation, European entities must prioritize addressing this vulnerability to maintain security posture and compliance.

Immediate mitigation steps include implementing rate limiting or throttling on the verification code input mechanism to restrict the number of attempts per user or IP address within a given timeframe. Organizations should monitor authentication logs for unusual patterns indicative of brute-force attempts and deploy anomaly detection systems to alert on suspicious activities. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) should be enforced to add an additional layer of security beyond email verification codes. If possible, temporarily disable or restrict the affected verification flows until a patch is available. Organizations should also educate users about potential phishing or social engineering attacks that could leverage compromised accounts. On the vendor side, infiniflow must urgently develop and release a patch that enforces proper rate limiting, increases verification code complexity or length, and incorporates account lockout mechanisms after repeated failed attempts. Until a patch is available, organizations should consider isolating RAGFlow deployments or limiting access to trusted networks. Regularly updating and auditing authentication mechanisms and integrating security testing into the development lifecycle will help prevent similar vulnerabilities in the future.