Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NSummary
CVE-2025-65998 is a high-severity Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key (CWE-321) vulnerability in Apache Syncope. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Credentials In Files (T1552.001); ranked at the 40th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-12 (Cryptographic Key Establishment and Management) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-198717
Vulnerability Data
Apache Syncope can be configured to store the user password values in the internal database with AES encryption, though this is not the default option. When AES is configured, the default key value, hard-coded in the source code, is always…
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used. This allows a malicious attacker, once obtained access to the internal database content, to reconstruct the original cleartext password values. This is not affecting encrypted plain attributes, whose values are also stored using AES encryption. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.0.15 / 4.0.3, which fix this issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Hardcoded AES key enables trivial decryption of DB-stored passwords (unsecured credential storage).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires proper cryptographic key establishment and management, which would prevent use of a hardcoded AES key for password storage.
Mandates timely flaw remediation to apply the vendor patches (3.0.15/4.0.3) that eliminate the hardcoded key.
Requires correct cryptographic protection mechanisms, addressing the broken AES implementation for stored passwords.
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.
Secure-SDLC activities such as code review and secret scanning directly prevent embedding static keys.
Data-at-rest protection policies require proper key management and therefore discourage hard-coded keys.
Data-in-transit protection similarly depends on non-hard-coded keys for encryption.
Configuration baselines and reviews can prohibit hard-coded keys in deployed artifacts.
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.
Key-management controls that govern generation, rotation and protection of keys make the use of embedded hard-coded cryptographic keys less likely and easier to detect.