CVE-2025-53513

HighPublic PoC

Published: 08 July 2025

Published

08 July 2025

Modified

08 January 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0051 66.6th percentile

Risk Priority 18 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-53513 is a high-severity Path Traversal: '../filedir' (CWE-24) vulnerability in Canonical Juju. 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 33.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

Enforces approved authorizations on the /charms endpoint to prevent any user with a controller account from uploading malicious charms.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

prevent

Applies least privilege to restrict charm upload capabilities to only necessary users, mitigating exploitation by low-privileged accounts.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

prevent

Validates information inputs in uploaded charm zip files to block Zip Slip path traversal attacks during processing or deployment.

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 →

Why these techniques?

Insufficient authorization on the /charms upload endpoint directly enables remote exploitation of the public-facing Juju controller (authenticated low-privilege account) to deploy malicious charms that achieve code execution/compromise via Zip Slip.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

The /charms endpoint on a Juju controller lacked sufficient authorization checks, allowing any user with an account on the controller to upload a charm. Uploading a malicious charm that exploits a Zip Slip vulnerability could allow an attacker to gain…

access to a machine running a unit through the affected charm.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-53513 is a high-severity vulnerability in the Juju controller, published on 2025-07-08, stemming from insufficient authorization checks on the /charms endpoint. This flaw allows any user with an account on the controller to upload charms without proper restrictions. A malicious charm exploiting a Zip Slip vulnerability (associated with CWE-24: Relative Path Traversal and CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory) could then be used to compromise machines running units of that charm. The issue 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).

Attackers require only low privileges, specifically an account on the Juju controller, to exploit this remotely over the network with low complexity and no user interaction. By uploading a crafted malicious charm, the attacker can leverage the Zip Slip vulnerability during charm deployment or processing, achieving high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations, including unauthorized access to the underlying machine hosting a unit of the charm.

Mitigation details are outlined in the official Juju security advisory available at https://github.com/juju/juju/security/advisories/GHSA-24ch-w38v-xmh8.