Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-42999

RCE in Sap Netweaver 7.5

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCRansomware-linkedRCEDeserialization
Published
13 May 2025
Modified
11 August 2026
KEV Added
15 May 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.11 96th percentile
Risk Priority 85 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-42999 is a critical-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Sap Netweaver. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — 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.

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Metadata Uploader contains a deserialization flaw tracked as CVE-2025-42999 and CWE-502. A privileged user can upload untrusted or malicious serialized content that the component processes without adequate validation, resulting in a complete compromise of the host system's confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The vulnerability carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.1 with network attack vector, low complexity, high privileges required, and changed scope.

An authenticated attacker with administrative access can supply crafted metadata that executes arbitrary code upon deserialization, allowing takeover of the affected SAP system and potential lateral movement within the environment. No user interaction is needed beyond the initial privileged upload.

SAP has published note 3604119 and addressed the issue through its regular security patch day cycle. The vulnerability also appears in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, indicating confirmed in-the-wild activity.

EPSS for the CVE rose from lower values to a peak of 0.7025 on 2026-03-09 before receding to the current 0.3857, demonstrating increased exploitation interest after disclosure.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer Metadata Uploader is vulnerable when a privileged user can upload untrusted or malicious content which, when deserialized, could potentially lead to a compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the host system.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
15 May 2025

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-23685Same product: Sap Netweaver
CVE-2021-38163Same product: Sap Netweaverboth on KEV
CVE-2025-31324Same product: Sap Netweaverboth on KEV
CVE-2019-0344Same vendor: Sapboth on KEV
CVE-2024-27898Same product: Sap Netweaver
CVE-2023-29186Same product: Sap Netweaver
CVE-2025-42968Same product: Sap Netweaver
CVE-2023-41367Same product: Sap Netweaver
CVE-2023-36922Same product: Sap Netweaver
CVE-2023-33984Same product: Sap Netweaver

Affected Assets

sap
netweaver
7.5

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can uncover deserialization flaws before deployment.

Input validation directly stops deserialization of untrusted data by ensuring inputs are valid before processing.

Engineering principles such as safe deserialization and input sanitization structurally prevent the weakness from being introduced.

Integrity verification tools can detect malformed or tampered serialized data after the fact.

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-02 none match
prevents

PR.PS-02 addresses only post-deployment updates/patching and cannot prevent introduction of unsafe deserialization code, yet it can remediate some instances when the flaw exists in outdated libraries or components.

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.

finds

Security testing includes validation of deserialization routines and the use of untrusted data, reducing the likelihood that unsafe object reconstruction will be deployed.

prevents

Requiring vetted libraries, regular updates and SAST before release reduces the likelihood that deserialization logic will accept and act on attacker-controlled serialized objects.

finds

Regular scanning of third-party libraries and timely patching reduce the likelihood that unsafe deserialization vulnerabilities remain active.

none

Mandatory malware scanning of data received over networks or storage media intercepts malicious serialized payloads before they are deserialized by the target application.

References