Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-26340

Exposed Creds in Q-Free Maxtime ≤ 2.11.0

Published
12 February 2025
Modified
24 October 2025
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.011 64th percentile
Risk Priority 66 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-26340 is a high-severity Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key (CWE-321) vulnerability in Q-Free Maxtime. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Private Keys (T1552.004); ranked in the top 36% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-12 (Cryptographic Key Establishment and Management) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-26340 is a CWE-321 vulnerability involving the use of a hard-coded cryptographic key in the JSON Web Token (JWT) signing mechanism of Q-Free MaxTime versions less than or equal to 2.11.0. This flaw affects the authentication process, enabling attackers to forge valid JWTs due to the static key, which undermines the integrity of signed tokens.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity, requiring user interaction such as clicking a crafted link or opening a malicious request. Successful exploitation allows bypassing authentication entirely, granting high-impact access to confidential data (C:H), modification of system integrity (I:H), and potential disruption of availability (A:H), as reflected in the CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

For mitigation details, refer to the advisory published by Nozomi Networks at https://www.nozominetworks.com/labs/vulnerability-advisories-cve-2025-26340, which was released alongside the CVE publication on 2025-02-12.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A CWE-321 "Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key" in the JWT signing in Q-Free MaxTime less than or equal to version 2.11.0 allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to bypass the authentication via crafted HTTP requests.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1552.004 Private Keys Credential Access
Adversaries may search for private key certificate files on compromised systems for insecurely stored credentials.
T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
T1552.001 Credentials In Files Credential Access
Adversaries may search local file systems and remote file shares for files containing insecurely stored credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-1100Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26368Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-1102Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26351Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26354Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26348Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26359Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26349Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26375Same product: Q-Free Maxtime
CVE-2025-26344Same product: Q-Free Maxtime

Affected Assets

q-free
maxtime
≤ 2.11.0

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Requiring cryptographic keys to be established and managed according to defined requirements prevents developers from embedding static unchangeable keys.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-SDLC activities such as code review and secret scanning directly prevent embedding static keys.

PR.DS-01 partial match
prevents

Data-at-rest protection policies require proper key management and therefore discourage hard-coded keys.

PR.DS-02 partial match
prevents

Data-in-transit protection similarly depends on non-hard-coded keys for encryption.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

Configuration baselines and reviews can prohibit hard-coded keys in deployed artifacts.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

prevents

Key-management controls that govern generation, rotation and protection of keys make the use of embedded hard-coded cryptographic keys less likely and easier to detect.

References