CVE-2025-8875
RCE in N-Able N-Central ≤ 2025.3.1
Raw vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:XSummary
CVE-2025-8875 is a critical-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in N-Able N-Central. 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 27% 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.
CVE-2025-8875 is a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability, tracked under CWE-502, that permits local code execution. It affects the N-able N-central platform in all versions prior to 2025.3.1. The flaw received a CVSS 4.0 score of 9.4, reflecting network attack vector, low attack complexity, low privileges required, and high impacts across confidentiality, integrity, availability, and scope.
An attacker with low-privileged network access can supply a malicious serialized object that the application deserializes without sufficient validation, resulting in arbitrary code execution on the affected N-central instance. Successful exploitation grants the attacker the ability to compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the system and potentially affect other components within its trust boundary.
The vendor released N-central 2025.3.1 to address the issue, as noted in the August 2025 general availability announcement. The vulnerability appears in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, confirming observed in-the-wild exploitation. Its EPSS score rose from a low baseline to a peak of 0.0508 on 2025-12-18 before receding, indicating measurable post-disclosure attacker interest.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-24823
Vulnerability Data
Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in N-able N-central allows Local Execution of Code.This issue affects N-central: before 2025.3.1.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 13 August 2025
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can uncover deserialization flaws before deployment.
Input validation directly stops deserialization of untrusted data by ensuring inputs are valid before processing.
Engineering principles such as safe deserialization and input sanitization structurally prevent the weakness from being introduced.
Integrity verification tools can detect malformed or tampered serialized data after the fact.
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-02 addresses only post-deployment updates/patching and cannot prevent introduction of unsafe deserialization code, yet it can remediate some instances when the flaw exists in outdated libraries or components.
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 includes validation of deserialization routines and the use of untrusted data, reducing the likelihood that unsafe object reconstruction will be deployed.
Requiring vetted libraries, regular updates and SAST before release reduces the likelihood that deserialization logic will accept and act on attacker-controlled serialized objects.
Regular scanning of third-party libraries and timely patching reduce the likelihood that unsafe deserialization vulnerabilities remain active.
Mandatory malware scanning of data received over networks or storage media intercepts malicious serialized payloads before they are deserialized by the target application.