Ethical Hacking News
A critical Sitecore vulnerability has been exposed, highlighting the importance of prioritizing software security patching and securing key files. Experts warn that organizations must take immediate action to address this vulnerability and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.
Sitecore is vulnerable to exploitation via publicly exposed key files due to a configuration issue (CVE-2025-53690).The vulnerability affects all versions of Sitecore Experience Manager, Experience Platform, and Experience Commerce in multi-instance mode with customer-managed static machine keys.Users who deployed their Sitecore instances using an old sample key should rotate those keys immediately to prevent potential remote code execution and unauthorized access.The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, highlighting the importance of ensuring all software systems are up-to-date with security patches.
Sitecore, a popular content management system used by numerous organizations worldwide, has been found to be vulnerable to exploitation via publicly exposed key files. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-53690, is due to a configuration issue rather than a software hole in the product. This has led to concerns among cybersecurity experts and IT professionals about the potential for remote code execution and unauthorized access to sensitive information.
The bug affects all versions of Sitecore Experience Manager (XM), Experience Platform (XP), Experience Commerce (XC), and Managed Cloud deployed in multi-instance mode with customer-managed static machine keys. In this configuration, the business software provider warned that customers using the sample key provided with deployment instructions for Sitecore XP 9.0 or earlier and Sitecore Active Directory 1.4 and earlier versions are potentially impacted.
In other words, users who have deployed their Sitecore instances using a sample key from old documentation rather than generating their own machine keys should treat their installations as vulnerable and rotate those keys immediately. This is because successful exploitation of the related vulnerability might lead to remote code execution and unauthorized access to information.
Mandiant, a threat intelligence firm, has published its account of an attack that was disrupted midway. In this incident, the attacker used the exposed ASP.NET machine key to perform Remote Code Execution (RCE). Although Mandiant was able to disrupt the attack early, they noted that the attacker's deep understanding of the compromised product and the exploited vulnerability was evident in their progression from initial server compromise to privilege escalation.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has also added CVE-2025-53690 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. This move reflects the growing concern about this particular vulnerability, which highlights the importance of ensuring that all software systems are up-to-date with the latest security patches.
Furthermore, the attack highlighted by Mandiant demonstrates how malicious actors can take advantage of publicly exposed key files to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information and execute remote code on compromised systems. This is a clear warning for developers and IT professionals who handle Sitecore instances or any other software that uses similar configuration settings.
In light of this vulnerability, cybersecurity experts are emphasizing the need for organizations to prioritize security patching and ensure that all key files are properly secured. Moreover, they are advising users to take proactive measures to mitigate potential risks by rotating keys and keeping their systems up-to-date with the latest security patches.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/Sitecore-Vulnerability-Exposed-A-Wake-Up-Call-for-DevOps-Teams-ehn.shtml
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/unknown_miscreants_snooping_around_sitecore/
https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/unknown_miscreants_snooping_around_sitecore/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/cybersecurity/attackers-snooping-around-sitecore-dropping-malware-via-public-sample-keys/ar-AA1LTZQA
Published: Thu Sep 4 22:04:44 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
