CVE-2025-40738
Published: 08 July 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-40738 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Siemens Sinec Nms. 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 17.5% 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
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Directly requires validation of file paths in uploaded ZIP files to prevent path traversal exploitation.
Mandates timely flaw remediation through patching to SINEC NMS V4.0 or later, eliminating the vulnerability.
Implements file integrity monitoring to detect unauthorized file writes to restricted locations from path traversal.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Path traversal in ZIP extraction enables arbitrary file write leading to web shell deployment and RCE with privilege escalation on a public-facing app.
NVD Description
A vulnerability has been identified in SINEC NMS (All versions < V4.0). The affected application does not properly validate file paths when extracting uploaded ZIP files. This could allow an attacker to write arbitrary files to restricted locations and potentially…
more
execute code with elevated privileges (ZDI-CAN-26572).
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-40738 is a path traversal vulnerability (CWE-22) affecting SINEC NMS in all versions prior to V4.0. The application does not properly validate file paths when extracting uploaded ZIP files, which can enable attackers to write files outside intended directories. Published on 2025-07-08, it 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), indicating high severity due to network accessibility, low attack complexity, and significant impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
An authenticated attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability remotely without user interaction. By crafting a malicious ZIP file with path traversal sequences, they can write arbitrary files to restricted locations on the server, potentially achieving remote code execution with elevated privileges as referenced in ZDI-CAN-26572.
Siemens security advisory SSA-078892 provides details on the vulnerability and mitigation, available at https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-078892.html. Updating to SINEC NMS V4.0 or later addresses the issue in affected versions.
Details
- CWE(s)