CVE-2025-2538

Critical

Published: 20 March 2025

Published

20 March 2025

Modified

10 December 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0091 76.0th percentile

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

Summary

CVE-2025-2538 is a critical-severity Use of Hard-coded Credentials (CWE-798) vulnerability in Esri Portal For Arcgis. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 24.0% 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 IA-5 (Authenticator Management) 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-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly mitigates the hardcoded credential vulnerability by requiring identification, reporting, and timely remediation of flaws, including applying Esri's security patch.

IA-5 Authenticator Management good match

prevent

Prohibits hardcoded credentials by mandating secure management, distribution, and protection of system authenticators to prevent unauthorized administrative access.

AC-2 Account Management partial match

prevent

Enables review, management, and disabling of accounts that may leverage hardcoded credentials, reducing the risk of unauthenticated administrative access.

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 →

T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The hardcoded credential flaw in a public-facing ArcGIS Portal directly enables remote unauthenticated exploitation of the web application (T1190) to obtain and abuse valid administrative accounts (T1078) for full system control.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

A hardcoded credential vulnerability exists in a specific deployment pattern for Esri Portal for ArcGIS versions 11.4 and below that may allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to gain administrative access to the system.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-2538 is a hardcoded credential vulnerability (CWE-798) affecting Esri Portal for ArcGIS versions 11.4 and below, specifically within a particular deployment pattern. This flaw enables a remote unauthenticated attacker to gain administrative access to the system. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating critical severity due to its network accessibility, low complexity, and potential for high-impact compromise across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

A remote unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability over the network without user interaction or privileges. Successful exploitation grants full administrative access, allowing the attacker to control the Portal for ArcGIS instance, potentially leading to data exfiltration, system modification, or further lateral movement within the affected environment.

Esri has addressed this issue in the Portal for ArcGIS Security 2025 Update 3 Patch, detailed at https://support.esri.com/en-us/patches-updates/2025/portal-for-arcgis-security-2025-update-3-patch. Security practitioners should apply this patch promptly to mitigate the risk, particularly for deployments matching the vulnerable pattern.