CVE-2025-54607 is a high-severity vulnerability identified in Huawei's HarmonyOS, specifically within the ArkWeb module responsible for authentication management. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-295, which pertains to improper certificate validation. This means that the ArkWeb module fails to correctly validate digital certificates during authentication processes, potentially allowing attackers to bypass security checks that rely on certificate trust. The affected versions are HarmonyOS 5.1.0 and 5.0.1. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.7, indicating a high severity level, with the vector AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L. This translates to a network attack vector requiring high attack complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction, with impact on confidentiality and integrity rated high and availability impact low. Improper certificate validation can enable man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, where an attacker intercepts or alters communications between a user and a service, potentially exposing sensitive data or injecting malicious content. Given the vulnerability affects authentication management, successful exploitation could compromise service confidentiality and integrity, allowing unauthorized access or data leakage. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet, indicating that mitigation may rely on vendor updates or configuration changes once available. The vulnerability's presence in a core OS component used in Huawei devices and IoT ecosystems raises concerns about the security of communications and authentication in these environments.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-54607 could be significant, especially those using Huawei devices or infrastructure running HarmonyOS, including IoT deployments, mobile devices, or embedded systems. The improper certificate validation flaw could allow attackers to intercept or manipulate sensitive communications, leading to data breaches, unauthorized access to services, or disruption of secure operations. Confidentiality breaches could expose personal data, intellectual property, or operational secrets, potentially violating GDPR and other data protection regulations. Integrity compromises could undermine trust in authentication mechanisms, enabling attackers to impersonate legitimate services or users. Although availability impact is low, the loss of confidentiality and integrity in authentication processes can have cascading effects on business continuity and reputation. Organizations relying on Huawei HarmonyOS in critical infrastructure or supply chains may face increased risk of espionage or targeted attacks exploiting this vulnerability. The lack of known exploits suggests a window for proactive mitigation, but also a risk that attackers may develop exploits rapidly once details become widespread.

1. Immediate mitigation should include monitoring network traffic for unusual certificate-related anomalies or MITM attack indicators, especially in environments with HarmonyOS devices. 2. Restrict network access to critical HarmonyOS devices to trusted networks and use VPNs or secure tunnels to reduce exposure to network-based attacks. 3. Implement strict certificate pinning or additional certificate validation layers at the application level where possible to compensate for OS-level validation weaknesses. 4. Maintain up-to-date inventories of all Huawei HarmonyOS devices and ensure they are running affected versions (5.0.1 or 5.1.0) to prioritize patching once vendor updates are released. 5. Engage with Huawei support channels to obtain patches or workarounds as soon as they become available. 6. Educate security teams about this vulnerability to enhance incident detection and response capabilities related to certificate validation anomalies. 7. Consider network segmentation to isolate vulnerable devices and limit potential lateral movement by attackers exploiting this flaw. 8. Review and enhance logging and alerting on authentication failures or certificate validation errors to detect exploitation attempts early.