CVE-2025-66419 is a race condition vulnerability identified in MaxKB, an open-source AI assistant designed for enterprise environments. The vulnerability exists in versions 2.3.1 and earlier within the tool module, where improper synchronization of shared resources during concurrent execution allows an attacker to escape the sandbox environment and escalate privileges. This flaw is categorized under CWE-362, indicating a concurrency issue where multiple threads or processes access shared resources without adequate locking or synchronization mechanisms. Exploiting this vulnerability requires the attacker to have limited privileges (PR:L) but no user interaction (UI:N) is needed, and it can be triggered remotely (AV:N). The vulnerability impacts confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H), making it highly critical. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8 reflects the severity and ease of exploitation. Although no public exploits are currently known, the potential for attackers to gain elevated privileges and break out of sandbox restrictions poses a significant threat to enterprise environments relying on MaxKB. The vendor has addressed this issue in version 2.4.0, which includes proper synchronization fixes to prevent concurrent access issues. Organizations using affected versions must upgrade immediately and review their concurrency control and sandboxing implementations to prevent exploitation.

For European organizations, this vulnerability presents a serious risk to enterprise AI assistant deployments. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, manipulation or corruption of AI assistant outputs, and disruption of AI-driven business processes. Given MaxKB’s role in enterprise environments, attackers could leverage this flaw to move laterally within networks, escalate privileges, and potentially access critical infrastructure or intellectual property. The breach of confidentiality could expose personal data protected under GDPR, leading to regulatory penalties and reputational damage. Integrity and availability impacts could disrupt AI-assisted decision-making, affecting sectors such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. The remote exploitability and lack of user interaction required increase the likelihood of automated attacks. European organizations with high reliance on AI tools and those in regulated industries face amplified risks, necessitating urgent remediation to maintain compliance and operational security.

1. Immediate upgrade to MaxKB version 2.4.0 or later, which contains the fix for this race condition vulnerability. 2. Implement strict access controls to limit the number of users with privileges capable of triggering concurrent operations in MaxKB. 3. Conduct thorough concurrency and race condition testing in development and staging environments to detect similar synchronization issues. 4. Monitor logs and system behavior for unusual patterns indicative of sandbox escape or privilege escalation attempts, using advanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools. 5. Employ runtime application self-protection (RASP) mechanisms to detect and block exploitation attempts in real time. 6. Review and harden sandbox configurations to minimize the impact of any potential escape. 7. Educate developers and system administrators on secure coding practices related to concurrency and synchronization. 8. Maintain an incident response plan specifically addressing AI assistant compromise scenarios to enable rapid containment and recovery.