CVE-2025-57918 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting the ERA404 LinkedInclude product, specifically versions up to 3.0.4. The vulnerability is classified as a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) issue (CWE-352) that enables an attacker to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of an authenticated user. In this case, the CSRF vulnerability leads to Stored Cross-Site Scripting (Stored XSS), which means that malicious scripts injected by an attacker can be permanently stored on the target system and executed in the context of other users' browsers. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1 reflects a network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), but requiring user interaction (UI:R). The scope is changed (S:C), indicating that the vulnerability affects resources beyond the initially vulnerable component. The impact affects confidentiality, integrity, and availability to a limited extent (C:L/I:L/A:L). The vulnerability allows attackers to craft malicious requests that, when executed by a victim user, can inject persistent scripts into the application, potentially leading to session hijacking, data theft, or further exploitation. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no official patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability was published on September 22, 2025, with the reservation date on August 22, 2025, indicating recent discovery and disclosure. The ERA404 LinkedInclude product is a web-based tool or component, and the vulnerability arises from insufficient CSRF protections combined with inadequate input sanitization or output encoding, allowing stored XSS payloads to be injected and persist within the application.

For European organizations using ERA404 LinkedInclude, this vulnerability poses a significant risk. Stored XSS combined with CSRF can lead to unauthorized actions performed with the privileges of legitimate users, including administrators, potentially compromising sensitive data and internal systems. The ability to execute persistent malicious scripts can facilitate credential theft, session hijacking, and lateral movement within networks. This is especially critical for organizations handling personal data under GDPR, as exploitation could lead to data breaches and regulatory penalties. The network-exploitable nature means attackers can target these organizations remotely without prior access. The requirement for user interaction (e.g., clicking a link) slightly reduces the risk but does not eliminate it, as social engineering or phishing campaigns can be used to trigger the exploit. The scope change indicates that the vulnerability could affect multiple components or services beyond LinkedInclude itself, increasing the potential damage. Given the lack of known exploits in the wild, proactive mitigation is essential to prevent future attacks. The impact on availability, while limited, could still disrupt business operations if critical functions are affected by injected scripts.

Organizations should immediately review their use of ERA404 LinkedInclude and monitor for updates or patches from the vendor. In the absence of official patches, the following specific mitigations are recommended: 1) Implement strict CSRF protections such as synchronizer tokens or double-submit cookies to ensure requests are legitimate. 2) Conduct thorough input validation and output encoding to prevent injection of malicious scripts, especially in areas where user input is stored and rendered. 3) Employ Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict the execution of unauthorized scripts and reduce the impact of XSS. 4) Educate users about phishing and social engineering risks to reduce the likelihood of user interaction triggering the exploit. 5) Monitor web application logs and user activity for unusual requests or behaviors indicative of CSRF or XSS exploitation attempts. 6) Consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block CSRF and XSS attack patterns targeting LinkedInclude endpoints. 7) Isolate or sandbox the LinkedInclude component if possible to limit the scope of potential compromise. 8) Prepare incident response plans specifically addressing web application attacks involving CSRF and stored XSS to enable rapid containment and remediation.