CVE-2025-49865 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the Helmut Wandl Advanced Settings product, affecting versions up to 3.0.1. CSRF vulnerabilities occur when an attacker tricks an authenticated user into submitting a malicious request to a web application in which they are currently authenticated, without their consent or knowledge. This particular vulnerability allows an attacker to perform unauthorized actions by exploiting the lack of proper CSRF protections in the Advanced Settings interface. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium severity), with the vector indicating that the attack can be performed remotely over the network (AV:N), requires low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges (PR:N), but does require user interaction (UI:R). The impact is limited to integrity (I:L), with no confidentiality (C:N) or availability (A:N) impact. No known exploits are currently in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-352, which is a well-known web security weakness related to insufficient anti-CSRF protections. Since the product is a settings interface, successful exploitation could allow an attacker to modify configuration parameters or settings without authorization, potentially leading to misconfigurations or degraded security posture of the affected system.

For European organizations using Helmut Wandl Advanced Settings, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the integrity of their system configurations. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw could alter settings, potentially weakening security controls or enabling further attacks. Although the vulnerability does not directly compromise confidentiality or availability, unauthorized changes to settings can have cascading effects, such as enabling backdoors, disabling security features, or misrouting data. This risk is particularly significant for organizations with web-facing management interfaces or those that rely heavily on this product for critical configuration management. Given that exploitation requires user interaction, phishing or social engineering campaigns could be used to trick legitimate users into executing malicious requests. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the medium severity score and ease of exploitation (no privileges required) mean organizations should proactively address this issue to avoid potential future attacks.

1. Implement or verify the presence of anti-CSRF tokens in all forms and state-changing requests within the Advanced Settings interface to ensure requests are legitimate and originate from authenticated users. 2. Enforce SameSite cookie attributes (preferably 'Strict' or 'Lax') to reduce the risk of CSRF attacks via cross-site requests. 3. Educate users about phishing and social engineering tactics that could lead to inadvertent execution of malicious requests, emphasizing caution with unsolicited links or emails. 4. Monitor and log configuration changes within the Advanced Settings to detect unauthorized or suspicious modifications promptly. 5. Restrict access to the Advanced Settings interface to trusted networks or VPNs where possible, reducing exposure to remote attackers. 6. Apply strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the execution of untrusted scripts that might facilitate CSRF attacks. 7. Stay alert for official patches or updates from Helmut Wandl and apply them promptly once available. 8. Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on web application vulnerabilities, including CSRF, to identify and remediate weaknesses proactively.