{"id":53914,"date":"2025-06-21T12:07:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T12:07:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-11-02T15:08:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T21:08:03","slug":"cve-2025-5689-critical-vulnerability-in-pre-auth-nss-leading-to-root-group-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5689-critical-vulnerability-in-pre-auth-nss-leading-to-root-group-access\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-5689: Critical Vulnerability in Pre-Auth NSS leading to Root Group Access<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A recently discovered vulnerability, designated as CVE-2025-5689, poses a significant threat to systems using the pre-auth Network Security Services (NSS). This flaw could potentially lead to a full system compromise or data leakage, making it a high-risk issue demanding immediate attention. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5485-a-critical-vulnerability-pertaining-to-user-name-enumeration-in-web-management-interfaces\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"61509\">vulnerability affects all users<\/a> logging in for the first time on target systems, inadvertently granting them root group access. This vulnerability matters because it can provide a malicious actor with high-level privileges, leading to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49136-critical-vulnerability-in-listmonk-allows-unauthorized-access-to-sensitive-environment-variables\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"60354\">unauthorized access<\/a>, data manipulation, or even system control.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-5689<br \/>\nSeverity: Critical (CVSS 8.5)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Network<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-40912-critical-vulnerability-in-cryptx-for-perl-allows-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"60786\">Potential system<\/a> compromise and data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1301512691\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 720px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 22px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center; letter-spacing: -0.02em;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 10px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 42px; height: 42px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    Share secrets securely\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 14px; color: #d1d5db;\">\r\n    Ameeba is private infrastructure for communication and sensitive work built on encrypted identity instead of exposed corporate identity systems.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 18px; color: #a1a1aa;\">\r\n    Passwords, credentials, confidential files, screenshots, internal discussions, sensitive AI context, and private coordination should not become exposed across ordinary communication platforms.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #e4e4e7;\">\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Private Spaces for organizations and teams<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, files, and notes<\/li>\r\n    <li style=\"margin-bottom: 8px;\">\u2022 Sensitive AI work and protected collaboration<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Built for information that cannot leak<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #ffffff;\">\r\n    Our mission is to secure human work alongside AI.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Download Ameeba\r\n    <\/a>\r\n\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 8px; font-weight: 500;\">\r\n      Learn More\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Pre-Auth NSS | All Versions<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The flaw is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-44955-critical-vulnerability-in-ruckus-network-director-allows-jail-users-to-gain-root-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"75978\">rooted in the temporary user<\/a> record that the authd uses in the pre-auth NSS. When a user logs in for the first time, the system erroneously assigns them to the root group for the duration of that SSH session. A malicious user could exploit this flaw to gain root access to the system, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49181-unauthorized-api-endpoint-access-leading-to-denial-of-service-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"61675\">leading to unauthorized actions such as data<\/a> modification, system control, or data exfiltration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-3171399602\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Imagine a scenario where an attacker has established an SSH session using a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-34509-hardcoded-user-account-in-sitecore-xm-and-xp-enabling-unauthenticated-remote-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"62768\">user account<\/a>. The vulnerability would allow the attacker to execute commands with root <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-23974-incorrect-privilege-assignment-in-ifkooo-one-login-leads-to-privilege-escalation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"60238\">privileges due to the incorrect group assignment<\/a>. The pseudo-code below demonstrates this:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># The attacker logs in via SSH\nssh newuser@target.example.com\n# The system incorrectly assigns the new user to the root group\ngroups\nroot\n# The attacker now executes a command with root privileges\nsudo cat \/etc\/shadow<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the &#8216;cat \/etc\/shadow&#8217; command would typically be inaccessible to a new user. However, due to the CVE-2025-5689 vulnerability, the attacker has root access and can view sensitive system files, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-5901-buffer-overflow-vulnerability-in-totolink-t10-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"60523\">leading to a potential system<\/a> compromise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation and Prevention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The recommended course of action to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-39486-rankie-sql-injection-vulnerability-and-mitigation-measures\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"62769\">mitigate this vulnerability<\/a> is to apply the vendor-provided patch as soon as it becomes available. Until then, a temporary mitigation can be implemented by using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to monitor SSH sessions and identify any suspicious activity. Additionally, system administrators should consider limiting the number of new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-3498-unauthenticated-user-access-and-modification-of-radiflow-isap-smart-collector-configuration\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"92262\">users or restricting their access<\/a> until the patch is applied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview A recently discovered vulnerability, designated as CVE-2025-5689, poses a significant threat to systems using the pre-auth Network Security Services (NSS). This flaw could potentially lead to a full system compromise or data leakage, making it a high-risk issue demanding immediate attention. This vulnerability affects all users logging in for the first time on target [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-53914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53914"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85478,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53914\/revisions\/85478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53914"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=53914"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=53914"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=53914"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=53914"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=53914"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=53914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}