CVE-2025-8117 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting the Polska Akademia Dostępności (PAD) CMS, specifically impacting all three of its templates: www, bip, and www+bip. The root cause is a missing initialization of a parameter used in the password recovery functionality. This flaw allows an attacker to change the password of any user who has not previously used the password reset feature, without requiring any authentication or user interaction. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-909, which relates to missing initialization of resources, leading to unpredictable or insecure behavior. Exploitation is straightforward due to the lack of required privileges (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and network accessibility (AV:N). The CVSS 4.0 base score is 8.7, indicating a high impact primarily due to the ability to compromise user accounts and potentially gain unauthorized access to sensitive information or administrative functions within the CMS. Notably, the PAD CMS product is End-Of-Life (EOL), and the vendor will not issue patches or updates to remediate this vulnerability, increasing the risk for organizations still using this software. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, but the ease of exploitation and the critical nature of the flaw make it a significant threat.

For European organizations using PAD CMS, this vulnerability poses a serious risk to confidentiality and integrity. Attackers can reset passwords for any user who has not used the reset function, potentially gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data, administrative controls, or internal systems managed via the CMS. This could lead to data breaches, defacement of websites, or further lateral movement within the network. Since PAD CMS is used primarily in Poland (as suggested by the vendor name and CERT-PL assigner), organizations in Poland are at heightened risk. However, any European entity relying on PAD CMS for public-facing or internal web content management is vulnerable. The lack of vendor support and patches means organizations must rely on compensating controls or migration strategies. The vulnerability could also undermine trust in public institutions or services that use this CMS, especially if exploited to alter official information or disrupt services.

Given the absence of vendor patches, European organizations should prioritize the following mitigations: 1) Immediate migration away from PAD CMS to a supported and actively maintained CMS platform to eliminate exposure. 2) If migration is not immediately feasible, implement strict network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of the CMS to trusted internal networks only. 3) Employ Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block unauthorized password reset attempts or suspicious parameter manipulations related to the password recovery process. 4) Conduct thorough audits of user accounts and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) on all administrative and user accounts to reduce the impact of compromised credentials. 5) Monitor logs for unusual password changes or access patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. 6) Educate users to promptly use the password reset functionality, as the vulnerability only affects users who have not used it before. 7) Engage cybersecurity incident response teams to prepare for potential exploitation scenarios and establish rapid response protocols.