CVE-2025-54438
Published: 23 July 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-54438 is a critical-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Samsung Magicinfo 9 Server. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 45.0th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-54438, published on 2025-07-23, is an Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability, classified under CWE-22, in Samsung Electronics MagicINFO 9 Server versions less than 21.1080.0. The flaw enables attackers to upload a web shell to the web server due to inadequate path validation.
The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating it is exploitable remotely over the network by unauthenticated attackers with low attack complexity and no user interaction. Exploitation allows attackers to upload a web shell, achieving high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, such as remote code execution on the server.
Samsung's security advisory provides details on mitigation and patches at https://security.samsungtv.com/securityUpdates.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-22423
Vulnerability details
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Samsung Electronics MagicINFO 9 Server allows Upload a Web Shell to a Web Server.This issue affects MagicINFO 9 Server: less than 21.1080.0
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Path traversal in public-facing server directly enables unauthenticated web shell upload for RCE.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
SI-10 requires information input validation at upload entry points, directly preventing path traversal by ensuring pathnames cannot escape restricted directories in MagicINFO Server.
AC-3 enforces logical access controls on file system resources, blocking unauthorized writes to restricted directories even if path traversal occurs.
SC-7 provides boundary protection with content inspection at the web server interface to filter and block path traversal sequences in remote upload requests.