N-central: insecure deserialization in N-able N-central (CVE-2025-8875) #shorts

Summary

Welcome to our security podcast. Today we’re discussing CVE-2025-8875, an insecure deserialization vulnerability in N-able’s N-central RMM platform. Published on August 14, 2025, this flaw allows local code execution and has been confirmed as actively exploited alongside CVE-2025-8876, impacting over 870 unpatched instances.

Product details

N-able N-central is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) solution used by managed service providers and IT departments to monitor, manage, and automate network devices and endpoints. Versions prior to 2025.3.1 are affected by this issue.

Vulnerability type summary

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data. It arises when the application deserializes data from an untrusted or unauthenticated source, allowing attackers to craft malicious payloads that execute arbitrary code on the host.

Details of the vulnerability

CVE-2025-8875 stems from insecure handling of serialized objects within N-central. An authenticated attacker with local access or elevated privileges can supply a manipulated serialization stream, triggering arbitrary command execution on the server. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has confirmed that both this flaw and CVE-2025-8876 are being exploited in the wild, putting hundreds of organizations at risk of full system compromise.

Conclusion

To protect your environment, immediately upgrade N-central to version 2025.3.1 or later. Apply all vendor advisories and monitor for unusual activity. If you cannot update right away, restrict access to the N-central console, enforce strong authentication, and review logs for signs of exploitation. Stay tuned for more updates on this and other emerging threats.

Watch the full video on YouTube: CVE-2025-8875

Remediation and exploitation details

This chain involves the following actors

  • Hacker: Exploits the insecure deserialization vulnerability to gain local code execution
  • IT administrator: Responsible for updating, patching and configuring N-central instances
  • Security team: Monitors logs and network traffic for signs of malicious deserialization attempts

This following systems are involved

  • N-able N-central (Remote monitoring and management platform): Primary target
  • Deserialization API (Processes serialized data submitted by clients or agents): Vulnerable component

Attack entry point

  • Deserialization API endpoint: Accepts untrusted serialized objects without proper validation, leading to code execution
  • Web interface version info: Leaked version number in the login banner used to confirm vulnerability presence

Remediation actions

IT administrator
Update N-able N-central to version 2025.3.1 or later
N-able N-central
IT administrator
Apply the vendor patch that fixes the deserialization module
N-able N-central
Security team
Monitor logs for suspicious POST requests to the deserialization endpoint
N-able N-central

Exploitation actions

Service fingerprinting

Hacker
Identify N-central version and exposed services
N-able N-central
Examples:
  • Access https://target-server/login to read version banner
  • Scan port 443 to confirm HTTPS service

Insecure deserialization

Hacker
Craft a malicious serialized payload that triggers code execution
N-able N-central
Examples:
  • Use a custom exploit tool to generate a .NET object with embedded command execution
  • Embed a system call in the serialized data to drop a reverse shell

HTTP POST with binary data

Hacker
Deliver the payload to the vulnerable API endpoint
Deserialization API
Examples:
  • curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/octet-stream" --data-binary @payload.bin https://target-server/api/deserialize
  • Send payload through the agent update channel if it proxies data

Local code execution

Hacker
Trigger the deserialization process to execute the embedded commands
N-able N-central
Examples:
  • Payload spawns a reverse shell back to attacker
  • Execute a command to write a file under /tmp or C:\Windows\Temp

Command execution and local account creation

Hacker
Establish persistence and escalate privileges
N-able N-central
Examples:
  • Create a new administrative user for future access
  • Install a scheduled task or service for automatic shell spawn

Related Content

NOTE: The following related content has not been vetted and may be unsafe.

CVE database technical details

CVE ID
CVE-2025-8875
Description
Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in N-able N-central allows Local Execution of Code.This issue affects N-central: before 2025.3.1.
Provider
N-able
CWE / problem types
CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data
Affected Software Versions
N-able:N-central:[{'lessThan': '2025.3.1', 'status': 'affected', 'version': '0', 'versionType': '<='}]
Date Published
2025-08-14T14:56:11.884Z
Last Updated
2025-08-14T20:39:27.823Z