Dragonfly is an open-source peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution and image acceleration system widely used to optimize content delivery in cloud-native environments. The vulnerability CVE-2025-59345, classified under CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function), affects Dragonfly versions prior to 2.1.0. Specifically, the Manager component's web UI exposes two critical API endpoints—/api/v1/jobs and /preheats—without requiring any authentication. This design flaw allows any unauthenticated user with network access to the Manager to perform sensitive operations such as creating, deleting, and modifying jobs, including preheat jobs that prepare content for distribution. An attacker can exploit this by flooding the Manager with hundreds of bogus jobs via the /api/v1/jobs endpoint, causing the Manager to enter a denial-of-service (DoS) state. In this state, the Manager becomes unresponsive to legitimate administrative requests, effectively disrupting the system’s availability. The vulnerability has a CVSS 4.0 base score of 7.7, reflecting high severity due to its network exploitability, lack of authentication requirements, and significant impact on availability. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild. The issue is resolved in Dragonfly version 2.1.0, which introduces proper authentication mechanisms for these endpoints. Organizations relying on Dragonfly for image acceleration or file distribution should urgently upgrade to the patched version to prevent potential DoS attacks that could disrupt critical content delivery workflows.

For European organizations, the primary impact of this vulnerability is on availability. Dragonfly is often used in cloud-native and containerized environments to accelerate image distribution and file delivery. A successful attack can incapacitate the Manager component, halting job processing and preheat operations, which may delay or disrupt application deployments and updates. This can lead to operational downtime, degraded service performance, and increased operational costs. Industries relying heavily on continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, such as financial services, telecommunications, and cloud service providers, may experience significant disruptions. Additionally, the lack of authentication means that any attacker with network access—potentially even from within a compromised internal network segment—can exploit this vulnerability, increasing the risk of insider threats or lateral movement attacks. Although confidentiality and integrity are not directly compromised, the denial-of-service condition can indirectly affect business continuity and service reliability, which are critical for compliance with European regulations like GDPR and NIS Directive that mandate operational resilience.

1. Immediate upgrade to Dragonfly version 2.1.0 or later, which includes authentication protections on the Manager web UI endpoints. 2. Restrict network access to the Manager component by implementing strict firewall rules or network segmentation to limit exposure only to trusted administrative hosts. 3. Deploy network-level authentication and access controls such as VPNs or zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solutions to reduce unauthorized access risks. 4. Monitor Manager API endpoints for unusual activity patterns, such as a sudden surge in job creation requests, and implement rate limiting or anomaly detection. 5. Conduct regular audits of Dragonfly deployments to ensure no legacy versions remain in production. 6. Integrate Dragonfly monitoring with centralized security information and event management (SIEM) systems to enable rapid detection and response to potential exploitation attempts. 7. Educate operational teams about the vulnerability and ensure incident response plans include scenarios involving DoS attacks on infrastructure components like Dragonfly.