Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-54948 is a critical-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Trendmicro Apex One. Its CVSS base score is 9.4 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059); ranked in the top 3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
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.
A vulnerability in the management console of Trend Micro Apex One (on-premise) permits a pre-authenticated remote attacker to upload malicious code and execute operating system commands on affected installations. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2025-54948 with a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.4 and is categorized under CWE-78 for improper neutralization of special elements used in an OS command.
An unauthenticated network attacker can exploit the issue without user interaction to achieve code execution with high impact on confidentiality and availability and limited impact on integrity. Because the attack requires no prior authentication, it can be launched directly against exposed management consoles.
The vendor advisory at success.trendmicro.com recommends applying the fixes referenced in solution KA-0020652. CISA has added the CVE to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, confirming in-the-wild exploitation and directing organizations to prioritize remediation.
EPSS scores for the vulnerability rose from a low baseline to a peak of 0.2244 with a current value of 0.1389, indicating growing exploitation interest after public disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-23621
Vulnerability Data
A vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One (on-premise) management console could allow a pre-authenticated remote attacker to upload malicious code and execute commands on affected installations.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 18 August 2025
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
—
V1.2.5V1.2.8V15.2.5
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect command sanitization during development.
Input validation directly neutralizes or rejects special characters that would otherwise alter OS command structure.
Least privilege reduces the permissions available to any process that could be subverted by injected commands.
Least functionality restricts available OS commands and interpreters, limiting the blast radius of injection.
Secure engineering principles require proper neutralization of untrusted input before command construction.
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-06's SDLC practices directly require secure coding and input handling that blocks command-injection defects, yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors and verification gaps unaddressed.
Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).
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.
Security testing and code review target insecure use of operating-system command interfaces, catching command-injection flaws introduced during development.