Alert - Vulnerabilities impacting SAP NetWeaver (CVE-2025-31324 and CVE-2025-42999)

Alert

Number: AL25-006
Date: May 21, 2025

Audience

This Alert is intended for IT professionals and managers of notified organizations.

Purpose

An Alert is used to raise awareness of a recently identified cyber threat Cyber threatA threat actor, using the internet, who takes advantage of a known vulnerability in a product for the purposes of exploiting a network and the information the network carries. that may impact cyber information assets, and to provide additional detection DetectionThe monitoring and analyzing of system events in order to identify unauthorized attempts to access system resources. and mitigation advice to recipients. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Cyber securityThe protection of digital information, as well as the integrity of the infrastructure housing and transmitting digital information. More specifically, cyber security includes the body of technologies, processes, practices and response and mitigation measures designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access so as to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability. ("Cyber Centre") is also available to provide additional assistance regarding the content of this Alert to recipients as requested.

Details

On April 24, 2025, SAP released an emergency update for a critical vulnerability VulnerabilityA flaw or weakness in the design or implementation of an information system or its environment that could be exploited to adversely affect an organization's assets or operations. , CVE-2025-31324, affecting the following product^{Footnote 1}:

• SAP NetWeaver (Visual Composer development server) – version VCFRAMEWORK 7.50

This vulnerability can be exploited to allow an unauthenticated threat actor to upload arbitrary files to the affected system^{Footnote 2}.

On May 13, 2025, SAP released a security advisory addressing another critical vulnerability CVE-2025-42999. The patch for this vulnerability removes residual risk Residual riskThe likelihood and impact of a threat that remains after security controls are implemented. that remained after patching CVE-2025-31324^{Footnote 3Footnote 4}. On May 15, 2025, CISA added CVE-2025-3124 and CVE-2025-42999 to their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog^{Footnote 9}.

The Cyber Centre is aware of reports that CVE-2025-31324 has been actively exploited since March 2025^{Footnote 4Footnote 5}.

Indicators Of Compromise (IOCs)

The IOCs reported in the following URLs are associated with exploitation of this vulnerability:

Onapsis-Mandiant-CVE-2025-31324-Vuln-Compromise-Assessment

SAP NetWeaver Flaw Lets Threat Actors Take Full Control: CVE-2025-31324 and CVE-2025-42999 Explained

China-Nexus Nation State Actors Exploit SAP NetWeaver (CVE-2025-31324) to Target Critical Infrastructures

ReliaQuest Uncovers New Critical Vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver

Threat Brief: CVE-2025-31324

Critical vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver enables malicious file uploads

Suggested Actions

The Cyber Centre strongly recommends that organizations using SAP NetWeaver review the SAP Security Notes 3594142 and 3604119^{Footnote 6Footnote 7} and apply the necessary updates and mitigations to address these vulnerabilities.

Restrict access to the /developmentserver/metadatauploader endpoint using firewall FirewallA security barrier placed between two networks that controls the amount and kinds of traffic that may pass between the two. This protects local system resources from being accessed from the outside. policies or SAP Web Dispatcher. Block unauthenticated or public network access and limit internal access to authorized administrators.

Execute in-depth investigations in potentially exposed and vulnerable SAP systems, searching for known IoCs. Please consider that threat actors may have performed post-exploitation activity “living-off-the-land” (LoTL), without the deployment of webshells.

The indicators of compromise CompromiseThe intentional or unintentional disclosure of information, which adversely impacts its confidentiality, integrity, or availability. (IOCs) are being provided as is by the Cyber Centre for situational awareness and potential action. As some of the indicators provided may be legitimate software or infrastructure, or may be otherwise used for legitimate purposes, the detection or presence of activity related to these indicators does not necessarily imply a compromise. These indicators should be treated in an investigative, forensic or threat hunting context and used in conjunction with one another, particularly if evidence of the activity described in this alert is observed ^{Footnote 4Footnote 5}. It is important to verify business services and network environments before implementing any blocks based on these indicators.

In addition, the Cyber Centre strongly recommends that organizations review and implement the Cyber Centre’s Top 10 IT Security Actions^{Footnote 8}

If activity matching the content of this alert is discovered, recipients are encouraged to report via the My Cyber Portal, or email contact@cyber.gc.ca.

References