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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-48389: freescout · Deserialization of Untrusted Data

Affects freescoutSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.6 High : upgrade to 1.8.178 soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 12:55 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
8.6High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 61% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 1.8.178
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 29 May 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade freescout-help-desk/freescout to 1.8.178.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
GitHubfreescout-help-desk/freescoutpkg:github/freescout-help-desk/freescoutOther threatsAffected
  • <1.8.178
Fixed in
  • 1.8.178

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately verify their FreeScout deployment versions and upgrade to version 1.8.178 or later to remediate this vulnerability. Beyond patching, organizations should implement strict input validation and sanitization controls to prevent untrusted serialized data from being processed. Employing application-layer firewalls or web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block suspicious serialized payloads can provide an additional security layer. Restricting network access to FreeScout instances to trusted IP addresses and enforcing strong authentication and authorization policies will reduce the attack surface. Regularly auditing and monitoring logs for unusual deserialization activities or unexpected code execution attempts can help detect exploitation attempts early. Organizations should also consider isolating FreeScout instances within segmented network zones to limit potential lateral movement in case of compromise. Finally, maintaining an up-to-date inventory of software versions and applying security patches promptly is critical to minimizing exposure to such vulnerabilities.

Description

FreeScout is a free self-hosted help desk and shared mailbox. Prior to version 1.8.178, FreeScout is vulnerable to deserialization of untrusted data due to insufficient validation. Through the set function, a string with a serialized object can be passed, and when getting an option through the get method, deserialization will occur, which will allow arbitrary code execution This issue has been patched in version 1.8.178.

References

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