CVE-2025-23196

HighRCE

Published: 21 January 2025

Published

21 January 2025

Modified

09 June 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0202 83.9th percentile

Risk Priority 19 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-23196 is a high-severity Command Injection (CWE-77) vulnerability in Apache Ambari. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 16.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Directly prevents command injection by requiring validation of untrusted inputs like the script filename field executed via sh -c.

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Ensures timely patching of the specific code injection flaw fixed in latest Ambari versions.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

prevent

Limits damage from RCE by enforcing least privilege on Ambari server processes and restricting alert definition access to necessary roles.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1059.004 Unix Shell Execution

Adversaries may abuse Unix shell commands and scripts for execution.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The command injection vulnerability (via sh -c on script filename) directly enables remote code execution on the Ambari server application, mapping to exploitation of a public-facing application (T1190) and arbitrary Unix shell command execution (T1059.004).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

A code injection vulnerability exists in the Ambari Alert Definition feature, allowing authenticated users to inject and execute arbitrary shell commands. The vulnerability arises when defining alert scripts, where the script filename field is executed using `sh -c`. An attacker…

with authenticated access can exploit this vulnerability to inject malicious commands, leading to remote code execution on the server. The issue has been fixed in the latest versions of Ambari.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-23196 is a code injection vulnerability (CWE-77) in the Ambari Alert Definition feature of Apache Ambari. It occurs when defining alert scripts, as the script filename field is executed using `sh -c`, enabling authenticated users to inject arbitrary shell commands. This flaw leads to remote code execution on the Ambari server and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). The vulnerability was published on 2025-01-21.

An authenticated attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this remotely over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. By crafting a malicious script filename, the attacker injects and executes arbitrary shell commands via the `sh -c` invocation, achieving full remote code execution on the server with high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

The vulnerability has been fixed in the latest versions of Ambari, as stated in the advisory. Additional details are available in the Apache mailing list announcement at https://lists.apache.org/thread/70g1l5lxvko7kvhyxmtmklhhfrlon837 and the OSS-Security mailing list at http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/01/21/8.