CVE-2025-65841
LPE in Acustica-Audio Aquarius 3.0.069
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-65841 is a medium-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Acustica-Audio Aquarius. Its CVSS base score is 6.2 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Credentials In Files (T1552.001); ranked at the 9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-5 (Authenticator Management) and SC-28 (Protection of Information at Rest) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-200989
Vulnerability Data
Aquarius Desktop 3.0.069 for macOS stores user authentication credentials in the local file ~/Library/Application Support/Aquarius/aquarius.settings using a weak obfuscation scheme. The password is "encrypted" through predictable byte-substitution that can be trivially reversed, allowing immediate recovery of the plaintext value. Any…
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attacker who can read this settings file can fully compromise the victim's Aquarius account by importing the stolen configuration into their own client or login through the vendor website. This results in complete account takeover, unauthorized access to cloud-synchronized data, and the ability to perform authenticated actions as the user.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The vulnerability directly enables credential access by storing plaintext-recoverable passwords in a local settings file, allowing any process or attacker with file read access to obtain valid account credentials.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires protection of confidentiality of sensitive data (credentials) stored at rest in the aquarius.settings file, preventing trivial recovery via weak obfuscation.
Mandates protection of authenticator content from unauthorized disclosure, directly addressing storage of recoverable plaintext credentials instead of properly managed authenticators.
Enforces access restrictions on the settings file containing credentials, limiting which processes or users can read the weakly protected authentication data.
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.AA-05 directly enforces policy-based access management and least privilege, eliminating most improper-access-control defects, yet CWE-284 also covers implementation flaws and design gaps outside a single management control.
Hardened baselines and deviation monitoring directly eliminate most configuration-induced access-control defects, yet CWE-284 also encompasses code-level and design flaws outside the scope of configuration management alone.
Secure SDLC practices catch most access-control defects during design/coding/testing (mostly), yet leave residual risk from runtime configuration, architecture, and operational controls (partial).
PR.AA-01 supplies managed identities/credentials that support but do not implement access-control decisions, so it only partially prevents CWE-284 in either direction.
Authentication directly blocks unauthenticated actors (partial prevention of CWE-284) but leaves authorization logic, policy enforcement, and role checks untouched, so the control neither eliminates nor fully mitigates the broader weakness.
PR.DS-01 encryption mitigates impact of failed access checks on stored data but neither implements nor constrains access-control logic itself.
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.
Defining and enforcing explicit access rights and restrictions for each entity directly stops the assignment of permissions that exceed what is required, eliminating the root condition that allows improper access control.
Formal authorization, role-based provisioning, and timely revocation of access rights directly stop the creation of accounts or permissions that exceed what the business actually needs.
By enforcing explicit rules on which identities or groups may perform read, write, delete or execute operations and by denying anonymous access to sensitive data, the control directly stops the creation of overly permissive or missing access-control checks.
Requiring one-to-one mapping of identities to entities and timely removal of unused identities directly stops attackers from leveraging stale or shared accounts to bypass access restrictions.
By explicitly transferring security roles and responsibilities when personnel change jobs or leave, the control reduces the chance that former employees retain access rights they no longer need, thereby limiting improper access control.
Physical entry controls enforce explicit authorization and authentication at every access point, directly stopping unauthorized actors from reaching information-processing assets.