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Chall ManagerApplication · Ctfer Io

CVE-2025-53633

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-07-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.1.4 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
Chall-Manager is a platform-agnostic system able to start Challenges on Demand of a player. When decoding a scenario (i.e. a zip archive), the size of the decoded content is not checked, potentially leading to zip bombs decompression. Exploitation does not require authentication nor authorization, so anyone can exploit it. It should nonetheless not be exploitable as it is highly recommended to bury Chall-Manager deep within the infrastructure due to its large capabilities, so no users could reach the system. Patch has been implemented by commit 14042aa and shipped in v0.1.4.

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 · high confidence

Chall-Manager fails to validate the uncompressed size of zip archives during scenario decoding, allowing attackers to deploy zip bombs that expand to massive sizes upon decompression. This unauthenticated vulnerability enables denial of service or potential system compromise via specially crafted malicious zip files.

MitigationApply patch commit 14042aa by updating to v0.1.4. Additionally, ensure Chall-Manager is deployed in a deeply segmented network zone as recommended, with no direct external access, to limit attack surface.

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

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Chall ManagerApplication
Affected:< 0.1.4

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/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 the installed version of Ctfer Io Chall Manager
    Locate the installed Ctfer Io Chall Manager instance and retrieve its version number through the application interface, command-line tool, or package manager used for deployment
    Affected if The installed version is any release prior to 0.1.4 (versions 0.1.x below 0.1.4, or any pre-0.1.x release)
  2. Determine if the scenario decoding feature is accessible
    Identify whether the scenario upload/decoding functionality is enabled and reachable in the deployment, typically through web interface or API endpoints related to challenge scenario management
    Affected if The scenario decoding feature is enabled and accessible to users or unauthenticated attackers
  3. Review network accessibility of the Chall-Manager service
    Examine the network configuration and firewall rules to determine if the Chall-Manager service is exposed to untrusted networks or direct external access
    Affected if The service is directly accessible from external or untrusted network segments without segmentation
  4. Inspect configuration for zip validation settings
    Examine the Chall-Manager configuration files or settings for any parameters related to archive validation, size limits, or zip bomb protection mechanisms
    Affected if No archive size validation or decompression limits are configured, or validation is explicitly disabled

The environment is affected if Chall-Manager version is below 0.1.4 AND the scenario decoding feature is enabled and accessible to potentially malicious zip archives.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.1.4 or later
Fixed in 0.1.4
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Apply patch commit 14042aa by updating to v0.1.4. Additionally, ensure Chall-Manager is deployed in a deeply segmented network zone as recommended, with no direct external access, to limit attack surface.

Recommended fix High confidence

v0.1.4

  1. Upgrade Chall Manager to version 0.1.4 or later
  2. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the version number of the installed instance

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Chall Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,720
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.

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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-2025-53633 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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