CVE-2025-49213 is a critical security vulnerability identified in Trend Micro Endpoint Encryption Policy Server version 6.0. The root cause of this vulnerability is the use of an obsolete function leading to insecure deserialization within the Policy Server component. Insecure deserialization occurs when untrusted data is deserialized without sufficient validation, allowing attackers to manipulate serialized objects to execute arbitrary code. This vulnerability enables an unauthenticated remote attacker to perform remote code execution (RCE) on affected systems without any user interaction, making it highly severe. The vulnerability is similar in nature to CVE-2025-49212 but affects a different method within the same product. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 reflects the criticality, with attack vector being network-based (AV:N), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and full impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H). Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to fully compromise the encryption policy server, potentially leading to unauthorized access to encrypted data, manipulation of encryption policies, and disruption of endpoint encryption management across an organization. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the ease of exploitation and the critical impact necessitate immediate attention. The Trend Micro Endpoint Encryption Policy Server is a centralized management solution used to enforce encryption policies on endpoints, making it a high-value target for attackers seeking to bypass or undermine data protection controls.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-49213 could be severe, especially for those in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors where endpoint encryption is a critical component of data protection and compliance. Successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized decryption of sensitive data, exposure of personally identifiable information (PII), intellectual property theft, and disruption of secure communications. This could result in significant financial losses, regulatory penalties under GDPR, reputational damage, and operational downtime. Additionally, since the vulnerability allows pre-authentication remote code execution, attackers could leverage this as an initial foothold to move laterally within networks, escalate privileges, and conduct further attacks such as ransomware deployment or espionage. The centralized nature of the Policy Server means a single compromised server could impact the encryption posture of an entire organization’s endpoint fleet, amplifying the risk.

1. Immediate application of vendor patches or updates once released is critical; organizations should monitor Trend Micro advisories closely given the absence of current patches. 2. In the interim, restrict network access to the Endpoint Encryption Policy Server to trusted management networks only, using network segmentation and firewall rules to limit exposure. 3. Implement strict monitoring and logging of all access to the Policy Server to detect anomalous activities indicative of exploitation attempts. 4. Employ intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) with signatures or heuristics tuned to detect suspicious deserialization or exploitation patterns related to this vulnerability. 5. Conduct thorough endpoint and server audits to ensure no unauthorized changes or backdoors have been introduced. 6. Review and harden configuration settings of the Policy Server, disabling any unnecessary services or legacy protocols that could be leveraged by attackers. 7. Educate IT and security teams about this vulnerability to ensure rapid incident response readiness. 8. Consider deploying application-layer firewalls or web application firewalls (WAFs) in front of the Policy Server to provide an additional layer of defense against exploitation attempts.