CriticalCVE-2025-14611

    Gladinet CentreStack and TrioFox Hard Coded AES Keys (CVE-2025-14611)

    Published Last modified In CISA KEV since Sources: pwn.watch, CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    Gladinet CentreStack and Triofox prior to version 16.12.10420.56791 used hardcoded values for their implementation of the AES cryptoscheme. This degrades security for public exposed endpoints that may make use of it and may offer arbitrary local file inclusion when provided a specially crafted request without authentication.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update Gladinet CentreStack and TrioFox to version 16.12.10420.56791. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Gladinet CentreStack and TrioFox lt *..16.12.10420.56791
    Fixed in
    • Gladinet CentreStack and TrioFox 16.12.10420.56791

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: pwn.watch, CVE.org

    53.3 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.0

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    240.06 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploitedSource: VulnCheck KEV (opens in a new tab) How we classify
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    CVSS v4

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.1
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    53.3 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.0
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 16 December 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-798

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This is reachable over the network with no authentication or user interaction, and because the AES keys are hardcoded and identical across installations, exploitation is trivial and easily automated once the keys are known. Attackers use the file-read primitive as a stepping stone — pulling secrets such as the machineKey and chaining with older flaws to reach code execution — and exploitation likelihood sits among the highest of any CVE. Typical victims are mid-market organisations and MSPs running CentreStack/Triofox as an internet-facing file-sharing service. Treat any exposed instance as critical with a 24-hour patch deadline; although CISA has not flagged ransomware use, a compromised AD-integrated file server is a textbook entry point for data theft and lateral movement.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory and patch: Locate every CentreStack and Triofox instance, prioritising internet-facing portals on TCP 443/80, and upgrade to 16.12.10420.56791 or later. Anything below 16.12.10420.56791 is vulnerable.
      • Cut exposure now: If patching cannot happen within hours, temporarily block public access to the web interface or restrict it to known source ranges / VPN.
      • Hunt before you close the ticket: The flaw allows unauthenticated local file inclusion. Check IIS logs for retrieval of web.config or other config files (see Detection). Patching does not undo secrets that have already leaked.
      • Rotate keys and credentials: After upgrading, regenerate the ASP.NET machineKey (validationKey/decryptionKey) in web.config, restart IIS, and rotate any service, database or storage credentials stored in the configuration (AD bind accounts, cloud storage keys).
      • Assume chaining: The vendor description notes this can be combined with earlier vulnerabilities for full system compromise. If indicators are present, isolate the host and preserve evidence (memory image, IIS logs, event logs) rather than simply patching in place.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: Place CentreStack/Triofox servers in a DMZ with tight egress filtering; allow the IIS worker process outbound access only to required storage and update endpoints to frustrate tool staging and C2.
      • Reverse proxy / WAF: Front the application with a pre-authenticating proxy (SSO/MFA gateway) so unauthenticated requests never reach it. Enable WAF signatures for path traversal (..\, ../, %2e%2e) and for web.config references in request parameters.
      • Endpoint hardening: EDR rule or ASR policy blocking — or at minimum alerting on — child processes of w3wp.exe (cmd.exe, powershell.exe, rundll32.exe, certutil.exe). Strip write permissions from the app pool identity on web directories.
      • IAM / least privilege: Run the application pool under a dedicated low-privilege account; never store Domain Admin or broadly privileged AD credentials in the CentreStack configuration.
      • Configuration: Disable unneeded public endpoints (anonymous share links, web file access without login) until patched; verify integrity of configuration backups.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • IIS access logs: Unauthenticated requests to file handlers (e.g. /storage/filesvr.dn) carrying long, encrypted-looking parameters, and responses whose size matches a web.config. SPL idea: index=iis cs_uri_stem="*filesvr.dn*" cs_username="-" | stats count by c_ip, cs_uri_query.
      • ASP.NET ViewState abuse: Windows Application log Event ID 1316 (ViewState verification failed, event code 4009) spiking indicates deserialisation attempts with a stolen or wrong machineKey; successful exploitation shows as POSTs with oversized __VIEWSTATE values.
      • Process ancestry (Sysmon EID 1 / EDR): w3wp.exe spawning cmd.exe/powershell.exe with Base64-encoded commands, recon (whoami, nltest, net group) or download utilities. KQL: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "w3wp.exe" and FileName in~ ("cmd.exe","powershell.exe","certutil.exe").
      • File system (Sysmon EID 11): New .aspx, .ashx or .dll files in CentreStack web directories or ASP.NET Temporary Files outside maintenance windows — likely webshells.
      • Network (Zeek/Suricata): Unusual outbound connections from the CentreStack host shortly after unauthenticated inbound requests; newly installed RMM tooling on the server.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Gladinet CentreStack and Triofox prior to version 16.12.10420.56791 used hardcoded values for their implementation of the AES cryptoscheme. This degrades security for public exposed endpoints that may make use of it and may offer arbitrary local file inclusion when provided a specially crafted request without authentication. This opens the door for future exploitation and can be leveraged with previous vulnerabilities to gain a full system compromise.

    Source: pwn.watch, NVD (NIST), CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE), cvelistv5

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    GladinetCentreStack and TrioFox
    • < 16.12.10420.56791
    • 16.12.10420.56791
    gladinetcentrestack
    • < 16.12.10420.56791
    • 16.12.10420.56791
    gladinettriofox
    • < 16.12.10420.56791
    • 16.12.10420.56791

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-798Use of Hard-coded Credentials

      Base

      The product contains hard-coded credentials, such as a password or cryptographic key.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-798

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited

    References & sources

    • huntress.comblog/active-exploitation-gladinet-centrestack-triofox-insecure-…
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-14611government-resource
    • pwn.watchpwn.watch: Gladinet CentreStack and Triofox: CentreStack and Triofox Hard Coded Cryptographic Vulnerabilitypwn-watch
    • centrestack.comGladinet advisory: Gladinet CentreStack and Triofoxpwn-watch
    • access.triofox.comGladinet advisory: Gladinet CentreStack and Triofoxpwn-watch
    • support.centrestack.comGladinet advisory: Gladinet CentreStack and Triofoxpwn-watch
    • NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2025-14611pwn-watch
    • cisa.govCISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalogpwn-watch

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    One NVD translation into another language is hidden.

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