CVE-2025-9778VulnerabilityPublished 1 Sep 2025Updated 2 Sep 2025

CVE-2025-9778: Tenda W12 · Hard-coded Credentials

Affects Tenda W12Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 1.8 Low.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

1.8Low

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 3% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

Base metrics

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: High
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: Low
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Threat metrics

Exploit Maturity: POC

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable system is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or through terminal emulation (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., using social engineering techniques to trick a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: High: The successful attack depends on the evasion or circumvention of security-enhancing techniques in place that would otherwise hinder the attack. These include: Evasion of exploit mitigation techniques, for example, circumvention of address space randomization (ASLR) or data execution prevention (DEP) must be performed for the attack to be successful; Obtaining target-specific secrets. The attacker must gather some target-specific secret before the attack can be successful. A secret is any piece of information that cannot be obtained through any amount of reconnaissance. To obtain the secret the attacker must perform additional attacks or break otherwise secure measures (e.g. knowledge of a secret key may be needed to break a crypto channel). This operation must be performed for each attacked target.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker requires privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable system allowing full access to the vulnerable system’s settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Exploit Maturity: POC: Based on threat intelligence sources each of the following must apply: · Proof-of-concept is publicly available · No knowledge of reported attempts to exploit this vulnerability · No knowledge of publicly available solutions used to simplify attempts to exploit the vulnerability

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 1 Sep 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-9778, European organizations should first inventory their network infrastructure to identify any Tenda W12 devices running affected firmware versions. Since no official patches have been published, organizations should consider the following specific actions: 1) Restrict physical and local network access to Tenda W12 devices to trusted personnel only, employing network segmentation and access control lists to limit exposure. 2) Replace affected devices with models from vendors that do not have known hard-coded credential issues or that provide timely security updates. 3) Monitor network traffic for unusual administrative access attempts or configuration changes on Tenda W12 devices. 4) If possible, disable remote administrative interfaces and limit administrative access to wired connections rather than wireless. 5) Engage with Tenda support or vendor channels to request firmware updates or security advisories addressing this vulnerability. 6) Implement compensating controls such as network-level authentication and VPNs to restrict access to device management interfaces. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on device-specific controls and operational security measures tailored to the nature of the vulnerability.

Description

A security vulnerability has been detected in Tenda W12 up to 3.0.0.6(3948). Affected is an unknown function of the file /etc_ro/shadow of the component Administrative Interface. The manipulation leads to hard-coded credentials. An attack has to be approached locally. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitability is told to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed publicly and may be used.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-9778 is relatively limited due to the requirement for local access and the high complexity of exploitation. However, if an attacker gains physical or local network access, they could leverage the hard-coded credentials to gain administrative control over the Tenda W12 router. This could lead to unauthorized configuration changes, potential network traffic interception, or pivoting to other internal systems. Organizations relying on Tenda W12 devices in sensitive environments or with lax physical security controls could face increased risk. The vulnerability does not directly compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability on a broad scale but could serve as a foothold for further attacks within a compromised network segment. Given the low CVSS score and absence of known exploits in the wild, the immediate risk is low, but the presence of hard-coded credentials is a poor security practice that should be addressed to prevent future exploitation.

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 1 Sep 2025, 12:32 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats