CVE-2025-51606
Published: 21 August 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-51606 is a high-severity Use of Hard-coded Credentials (CWE-798) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, ranked at the 24.8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-25521
Vulnerability details
hippo4j 1.0.0 to 1.5.0, uses a hard-coded secret key in its JWT (JSON Web Token) creation. This allows attackers with access to the source code or compiled binary to forge valid access tokens and impersonate any user, including privileged ones…
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such as "admin". The vulnerability poses a critical security risk in systems where authentication and authorization rely on the integrity of JWTs.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Enables users to notice when hard-coded credentials have been exploited for unauthorized access.
Security training explicitly warns against hard-coded credentials, lowering their use in systems.
Policy and procedures prohibit hard-coded credentials in favor of managed authentication.
External identity providers eliminate the need for hard-coded credentials in applications.
Changing default authenticators prior to first use and protecting content prevents use of hard-coded credentials.
Central credential stores and rotation policies remove the need for hard-coded credentials in configuration files or code.
Intelligence programs surface reports of campaigns that abuse hard-coded credentials in products, prompting removal or replacement and thereby reducing successful exploitation.
Planned investment enables secure credential storage and management systems instead of hard-coded credentials.