Meta Platforms WhatsApp Incorrect Authorization Vulnerability (CVE-2025-55177)
Published Last modified In CISA KEV since Sources: pwn.watch, CVE.org
What is affected, what to do
Incomplete authorization of linked device synchronization messages in WhatsApp for iOS prior to v2.25.21.73, WhatsApp Business for iOS v2.25.21.78, and WhatsApp for Mac v2.25.21.78 could have allowed an unrelated user to trigger processing of content from an arbitrary URL on a target’s device. We assess that this vulnerability, in combination with an OS-level vulnerability on Apple platforms (CVE-2025-43300), may have been exploited in a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users.
The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update Facebook WhatsApp Desktop for Mac to version 2.25.21.78, Facebook WhatsApp Business for iOS to version 2.25.21.78, Facebook WhatsApp for iOS to version 2.25.21.73. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.
- Affected
- Facebook WhatsApp Desktop for Mac
lt 2.22.25.2..2.25.21.78 - Facebook WhatsApp Business for iOS
lt 2.22.25.2..2.25.21.78 - Facebook WhatsApp for iOS
lt 2.22.25.2..2.25.21.73
- Facebook WhatsApp Desktop for Mac
- Fixed in
- Facebook WhatsApp Desktop for Mac
2.25.21.78 - Facebook WhatsApp Business for iOS
2.25.21.78 - Facebook WhatsApp for iOS
2.25.21.73
- Facebook WhatsApp Desktop for Mac
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Metrics
5.4
Priority
XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: NVD, CVSS v3
5.4
CVSS v3
Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: pwn.watch, CVE.org
13.5 %
EPSS score
Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 96.5
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- 211.90 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- 5.4 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- 5.4
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- 13.5 %
- Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.
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- 96.5
- 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 30 August 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-863
Response and mitigation
Why act now?
Prioritisation rationale
On its own, this flaw rates only moderate severity: an authenticated-but-unrelated user can make the target's client fetch and process content from an arbitrary URL. Chained with the Apple OS bug CVE-2025-43300, however, it becomes a zero-click path that the vendor says was used in sophisticated attacks against specific targeted individuals. The typical target profile is a high-value person rather than infrastructure — executives, KRITIS decision-makers, legal and communications staff, and people with political or press proximity. There is no known ransomware use, and exploitation likelihood is assessed as well above average. Treat it as critical for high-risk users (patch plus Lockdown Mode within 24 h) and as fast routine patching via MDM compliance for the rest of the fleet.
Runbook step 1
Immediate response (0-24 h)
- Force the app update: Update WhatsApp for iOS to at least 2.25.21.73, and WhatsApp Business for iOS and WhatsApp for Mac to at least 2.25.21.78. Push a mandatory update via MDM (Intune, Jamf, Workspace ONE). For BYOD devices, send a compliance notice with a hard deadline.
- Patch the OS half of the chain: In-the-wild exploitation combined this flaw with CVE-2025-43300, an Apple OS vulnerability. Apple has released the fix for iOS, iPadOS and macOS — look up the exact build in the Apple security advisory and enforce it as a minimum OS version via MDM. You need both patches to reliably break the chain.
- Scope exposed devices: Pull the MDM or EDR software inventory for every iPhone, iPad and Mac running WhatsApp from 2.22.25.2 up to below the fixed builds. Start with devices belonging to executives, board members, control-room staff, OT owners and communications leads.
- Audit linked devices: Instruct high-risk users to remove unknown sessions under "Settings → Linked Devices". The flaw sits in linked-device synchronisation handling.
- Escalate notified users immediately: If an employee received a targeted-attack notification from Meta or Apple, treat the device as compromised. Pull it from service, capture an iOS backup or sysdiagnose for forensics, and reset credentials from a clean device. Then factory-reset the device.
Runbook step 2
Mitigation layers
- Configuration / endpoint hardening: Enable Lockdown Mode on iOS and macOS for anyone with an elevated threat profile. It significantly shrinks the attack surface for message content and link processing.
- IAM / compliance policy: Create an MDM compliance or Conditional Access rule. Devices running WhatsApp below 2.25.21.73 (iOS) or 2.25.21.78 (Business iOS, Mac), or running an outdated OS, lose access to M365, VPN and internal apps until they are updated.
- Application policy: Review whether WhatsApp is acceptable for business communication on managed devices, and restrict to approved messengers if not. Alternatively, keep WhatsApp in the personal partition (User Enrollment) to keep it separated from corporate data.
- Network / proxy: Blocking WhatsApp infrastructure outright isn't realistic. For Macs on the corporate network, however, block or log HTTP(S) fetches from the WhatsApp process to uncategorised or newly registered domains, using your secure web gateway or DNS filtering.
- Minimise linked devices: Set a policy that high-risk users run no linked devices (WhatsApp Web, Desktop), or only explicitly known ones.
Runbook step 3
Detection rules
- Software inventory (Defender for Endpoint / MDM): Find vulnerable versions, e.g.
DeviceTvmSoftwareInventory | where SoftwareName has "whatsapp" | where parse_version(SoftwareVersion) < parse_version("2.25.21.78"). Use the 2.25.21.73 threshold for the iOS consumer app. - macOS EDR process ancestry: Alert on child processes of
WhatsApp.appsuch assh,bash,zsh,osascript,curlorpython. Sigma shape:ParentImage|endswith: '/WhatsApp' AND Image|endswith: ['/sh','/bash','/zsh','/osascript','/curl']. - Crash reports / unified log: Clusters of WhatsApp crashes or ImageIO-related crashes (image parsing, linked to CVE-2025-43300) in iOS analytics or macOS DiagnosticReports may indicate exploitation attempts. On Macs, run
log show --predicate 'process == "WhatsApp"'and look for unexpected URL fetches. - Mobile forensics: For suspected targets, run an iOS backup or sysdiagnose through the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) against current spyware IOC sets. Review process, network and data-usage records for anomalies.
- Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata, DNS logs): On corporate Wi-Fi and Mac endpoints, correlate DNS lookups to rare or newly registered domains that occur shortly after WhatsApp activity. Also watch for unusual outbound connections from managed mobile devices to hosting providers with no business relationship.
- Software inventory (Defender for Endpoint / MDM): Find vulnerable versions, e.g.
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
Incomplete authorization of linked device synchronization messages in WhatsApp for iOS prior to v2.25.21.73, WhatsApp Business for iOS v2.25.21.78, and WhatsApp for Mac v2.25.21.78 could have allowed an unrelated user to trigger processing of content from an arbitrary URL on a target’s device. We assess that this vulnerability, in combination with an OS-level vulnerability on Apple platforms (CVE-2025-43300), may have been exploited in a sophisticated attack against specific targeted users.
Source: pwn.watch, NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Business for iOS |
|
| |
| WhatsApp Desktop for Mac |
|
| |
| WhatsApp for iOS |
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| whatsapp_business |
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Vendors and products
Weakness classes (CWE)
CWE-863Incorrect Authorization
Class
The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.
Entry at MITRE CWE-863
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.
| CISA KEV Catalog | CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.gov | actively exploited |
References & sources
- facebook.comsecurity/advisories/cve-2025-55177x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory
- whatsapp.comMeta Platforms advisory: Meta Platforms WhatsAppx_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor advisory, pwn-watch
- cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-55177government-resource, US government resource
- pwn.watchpwn.watch: Meta Platforms WhatsApp: WhatsApp Incorrect Authorization Vulnerabilitypwn-watch
- NVD (NIST)NVD: CVE-2025-55177pwn-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).
NVD analysis modifiedNVD
Record modifiedfb.com
Show 6 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Reference added —https://www.facebook.com/security/advisories/cve-2025-55177Reference added —https://www.whatsapp.com/security/advisories/2025/Reference removed https://www.facebook.com/security/advisories/cve-2025-55177—Reference removed https://www.whatsapp.com/security/advisories/2025/—Reference type removed https://www.facebook.com/security/advisories/cve-2025-55177 Types: Vendor Advisory—Reference type removed https://www.whatsapp.com/security/advisories/2025/ Types: Vendor Advisory—Source identifier: cve-assign@fb.com
Record modifiedCISA ADP
Weakness type: CWE-863
Show 4 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Weakness type (CWE) added —CWE-863Reference added —https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-55177Reference removed https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-55177—Reference type removed https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-55177 Types: US Government Resource—Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2025-55177"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2025-55177.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2025-55177 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>