CVE-2025-54987

CriticalRCE

Published: 05 August 2025

Published

05 August 2025

Modified

12 August 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0097 76.8th percentile

Risk Priority 19 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-54987 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 Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 23.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly remediates the OS command injection vulnerability through timely application of vendor patches for the Trend Micro Apex One management console.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Validates and sanitizes inputs to the management console to block malicious payloads that enable command injection and arbitrary code execution.

SI-3 Malicious Code Protection partial match

prevent

Scans uploaded content at system boundaries and internally to detect and block malicious code before it can be executed on the server.

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 →

T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution

Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

OS command injection in public-facing management console directly enables remote exploitation for initial access (T1190) and arbitrary command execution (T1059).

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

NVD Description

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. This vulnerability is essentially the same as CVE-2025-54948 but targets a different CPU architecture.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-54987 is a high-severity vulnerability (CVSS 9.4, CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H) in the on-premise management console of Trend Micro Apex One. Classified under CWE-78 (OS Command Injection), it enables a pre-authenticated remote attacker to upload malicious code and execute arbitrary commands on affected installations. This issue is functionally identical to CVE-2025-54948, differing only in the targeted CPU architecture.

A remote attacker with pre-authentication access over the network can exploit this vulnerability with low complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation grants high confidentiality impact through data access, low integrity impact, and high availability impact, potentially allowing command execution on the management console server and compromise of the endpoint security environment.

For mitigation details, refer to the Trend Micro advisory at https://success.trendmicro.com/en-US/solution/KA-0020652, which provides guidance on patches and remediation for affected installations.