Cleartext TransmissionWeakness · CWE-319

CVE-2025-12508

HIGH · 8.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-10-31
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
88/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
When using domain users as BRAIN2 users, communication with Active Directory services is unencrypted. This can lead to the interception of authentication data and compromise confidentiality.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

When domain users are used as BRAIN2 users, the communication with Active Directory services occurs without encryption (likely cleartext LDAP). This allows network-based attackers to intercept authentication credentials (plaintext passwords or NTLM hashes), leading to confidentiality compromise and potential credential theft.

MitigationEnable LDAPS (LDAP over SSL/TLS) or configure Kerberos authentication for Active Directory communication to encrypt all domain user authentication traffic.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify domain user configuration in BRAIN2
    Review the BRAIN2 user management settings or configuration files to determine if any users are configured with 'domain user' authentication type rather than local authentication. Look for settings relating to Active Directory integration or LDAP authentication.
    Affected if Domain users (Active Directory users) are configured as BRAIN2 users for authentication.
  2. Check AD connection protocol settings
    Inspect the BRAIN2 configuration for Active Directory connection settings. Look for parameters controlling the LDAP connection type, such as 'ldap_protocol', 'use_ssl', 'use_tls', or 'authentication_method'. Compare the settings against whether they specify 'LDAPS' (port 636) or 'TLS' versus plain 'LDAP' (port 389).
    Affected if The AD connection is configured to use plain LDAP (port 389) without SSL/TLS enabled.
  3. Verify authentication mechanism for domain users
    Examine the authentication configuration or logs for domain user login attempts. Check if the authentication mechanism shows 'simple bind' or cleartext password transmission versus Kerberos or NTLM over secure channels.
    Affected if Authentication uses cleartext LDAP simple bind rather than Kerberos or encrypted channels.
  4. Inspect network listener for LDAP traffic
    Use network monitoring tools (such as tcpdump, Wireshark, or netstat) to observe outbound traffic from the BRAIN2 server to AD domain controllers on ports 389 (LDAP) versus 636 (LDAPS) or 88 (Kerberos).
    Affected if Unencrypted LDAP traffic (port 389) is observed communicating with AD servers.
  5. Review AD integration configuration files
    Locate and examine configuration files related to Active Directory integration (commonly named ad_config.xml, ldap.conf, or similar). Search for entries specifying the AD server connection string and protocol scheme.
    Affected if The configuration specifies 'ldap://' URLs rather than 'ldaps://' for domain controller connections.

You are affected if domain users are configured as BRAIN2 users and the Active Directory connection uses unencrypted LDAP (plaintext) rather than LDAPS or Kerberos authentication.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Enable LDAPS (LDAP over SSL/TLS) or configure Kerberos authentication for Active Directory communication to encrypt all domain user authentication traffic.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-12508 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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