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cve

CVE-2025-37164: HPE OneView Critical RCE Under Attack

Security Substrate

— 6 min read

CVE-2025-37164: HPE OneView Critical RCE Under Attack

CVE ID: CVE-2025-37164

Severity: CRITICAL | CVSS: 10.0

Sources: 3 different security sources

Status: ACTIVELY EXPLOITED - Added to CISA KEV Catalog

Let Me Explain What Happened

My friends, we need to talk about a serious situation affecting HPE OneView, a popular IT infrastructure management platform. A vulnerability has been discovered that's as bad as they come—it received a perfect 10.0 severity score, meaning attackers can take complete control of affected systems without needing any credentials whatsoever. Think of it like finding out someone left a master key to your entire data center hanging on the front door, and now criminals are actively using it. CISA has confirmed this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild right now, which is why they've added it to their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and ordered federal agencies to take immediate action.

A Bit More Detail

HPE OneView is software that helps organizations manage their entire IT infrastructure from a single interface—servers, storage, networking, all of it. This vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-37164, is what we call a code injection flaw. It allows an attacker sitting anywhere on the internet to send specially crafted commands to an unpatched OneView system and execute whatever code they want with full system privileges. No username needed, no password required, no user interaction necessary. The attacker just needs to be able to reach your OneView instance over the network, and they're in.

The Technical Specifics

  • Attack Vector: Network (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H)
  • Attack Complexity: Low - Easy to exploit once the method is known
  • Privileges Required: None - Completely unauthenticated access
  • User Interaction: None - Fully automated exploitation possible
  • Scope: Changed - Attacker can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component
  • Impact: High confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact
  • CWE Classification: CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code - Code Injection)
  • Affected Product: Hewlett Packard Enterprise OneView
  • First Disclosed: December 16, 2025 by HPE
  • Added to CISA KEV: January 7, 2026

Understanding the Timeline

Let me walk you through how this situation unfolded, because timing matters when we're dealing with active exploitation:

  • December 16, 2025: HPE publicly disclosed the vulnerability and released their security bulletin with mitigation guidance
  • December 18, 2025: Security researchers and media outlets like The Hacker News began reporting on the critical severity, highlighting the perfect 10.0 CVSS score
  • January 7, 2026: CISA added CVE-2025-37164 to their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, confirming active exploitation in the wild and mandating federal agencies apply mitigations

This timeline tells us something important: attackers moved quickly. Within just three weeks of disclosure, exploitation became widespread enough for CISA to issue mandatory remediation orders. This is exactly the kind of vulnerability that organized threat actors prioritize—maximum impact with minimal effort.

Why This Vulnerability Is So Dangerous

Let me explain why security professionals are treating this with such urgency. A code injection vulnerability in infrastructure management software is particularly devastating because:

  • Central Control Point: OneView manages your entire infrastructure. Compromising it gives attackers visibility and control over all connected systems—servers, storage arrays, network switches, everything.
  • Perfect CVSS Score: The 10.0 rating isn't given lightly. It means maximum exploitability combined with maximum impact. An attacker can achieve complete system compromise remotely without any authentication.
  • Lateral Movement Platform: Once inside OneView, attackers can use it as a launching pad to compromise every system it manages, turning one vulnerability into a full infrastructure breach.
  • Persistence Opportunities: Management platforms often have legitimate reasons to connect to other systems, making malicious activity harder to distinguish from normal operations.

What You Should Do About This

Here's my guidance, prioritized by urgency. I know patching infrastructure management systems can be complex, but given the active exploitation, we need to act decisively:

Immediate Actions (Do This Today)

  • Identify Your Exposure: Determine if you're running HPE OneView in your environment. Check with your infrastructure teams, review asset inventories, and scan for OneView instances on your network.
  • Network Isolation: If you cannot immediately patch, isolate OneView systems from internet access. Place them behind VPNs or jump hosts that require authentication. This breaks the "Network" attack vector and buys you time.
  • Monitor for Compromise: Review OneView logs for suspicious activity, particularly:
    • Unexpected API calls or administrative actions
    • New user accounts or privilege escalations
    • Unusual outbound network connections
    • Configuration changes you didn't authorize
  • Enable Enhanced Logging: Increase logging verbosity on OneView systems to capture detailed activity for forensic analysis if needed.

Short-Term Remediation (This Week)

  • Apply Vendor Mitigations: Visit the official HPE security bulletin at https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=hpesbgn4985en_us&docLocale=en_US for specific mitigation steps and patches for your OneView version.
  • Test in Non-Production First: If possible, apply updates to a test environment first to ensure they don't disrupt your infrastructure management capabilities.
  • Schedule Maintenance Windows: Coordinate with stakeholders to apply patches to production systems. Yes, this might mean some downtime, but the risk of compromise is far greater.
  • Verify Patch Application: After patching, confirm the vulnerability is remediated by checking version numbers and reviewing the security bulletin's verification steps.

Long-Term Security Improvements

  • Network Segmentation: Infrastructure management systems should never be directly accessible from the internet. Implement proper network segmentation with management networks isolated from production and external networks.
  • Zero Trust Access: Require multi-factor authentication and VPN access for all connections to management interfaces, even from internal networks.
  • Regular Vulnerability Scanning: Include management infrastructure in your vulnerability scanning program. These systems are often overlooked but represent critical attack surfaces.
  • Incident Response Planning: Document procedures for responding to compromised infrastructure management systems, including how to safely rebuild and verify system integrity.
  • Subscription to Vendor Alerts: Ensure you're subscribed to HPE security bulletins so you learn about future vulnerabilities as soon as they're disclosed.

For Federal Agencies and BOD 22-01 Compliance

If you're working in a federal agency, CISA's Binding Operational Directive 22-01 applies here. You have a mandated deadline to either apply mitigations per HPE's vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations aren't available. Document your remediation actions and maintain evidence of compliance for audit purposes.

Detection and Hunting Guidance

For security operations teams, here are some approaches to detect potential exploitation attempts or successful compromises:

Network-Based Detection

  • Monitor for unusual HTTP/HTTPS requests to OneView management interfaces, particularly POST requests with suspicious payloads
  • Look for connections to OneView systems from unexpected source IPs, especially external addresses
  • Alert on any OneView system initiating outbound connections to external IPs (potential command and control)

Log Analysis

  • Review OneView application logs for error messages related to input validation or code execution
  • Search for successful administrative actions that don't correlate with known administrator activity
  • Look for rapid sequences of API calls that might indicate automated exploitation
  • Check for new scheduled tasks, services, or persistence mechanisms created on OneView systems

System-Level Indicators

  • Unexpected processes running on OneView servers
  • New files in web directories or temporary folders
  • Modified system binaries or configuration files
  • Unusual CPU or network activity patterns

Going Deeper: MITRE ATT&CK Context

For those of you who map threats to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, exploitation of CVE-2025-37164 would likely involve these techniques:

  • Initial Access: T1190 - Exploit Public-Facing Application (the code injection vulnerability itself)
  • Execution: T1059 - Command and Scripting Interpreter (executing injected code)
  • Persistence: T1053 - Scheduled Task/Job (attackers might create scheduled tasks for persistence)
  • Privilege Escalation: T1068 - Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (gaining system-level access)
  • Defense Evasion: T1070 - Indicator Removal on Host (clearing logs to hide activity)
  • Discovery: T1082 - System Information Discovery (enumerating managed infrastructure)
  • Lateral Movement: T1021 - Remote Services (using OneView's legitimate management capabilities to access other systems)
  • Impact: T1485 - Data Destruction or T1486 - Data Encrypted for Impact (potential ransomware deployment across managed infrastructure)

Why CISA's KEV Catalog Matters

Let me take a moment to explain why CISA adding this to their Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog is significant. CISA doesn't add vulnerabilities to this list based on theoretical risk—they add them based on confirmed evidence of active exploitation in the wild. When you see a CVE on the KEV catalog, it means real attackers are using it right now against real targets. For federal agencies, it triggers mandatory remediation requirements, but even if you're in the private sector, you should treat KEV-listed vulnerabilities with the same urgency. These are the vulnerabilities attackers are actively weaponizing.

Final Thoughts

I know dealing with critical vulnerabilities in production infrastructure can be stressful, especially when they affect systems as central as OneView. But remember, you're not alone in this. HPE has provided mitigation guidance, the security community is sharing detection methods, and your peers across the industry are dealing with the same challenge. Take it step by step: identify your exposure, implement temporary protections, apply patches methodically, and improve your long-term security posture. The fact that you're reading this and taking it seriously means you're already ahead of many organizations.

Stay safe out there, and don't hesitate to reach out to HPE support or your security community if you need help navigating this remediation.

Where I Found This Information

Note: This is automated security intelligence based on multiple sources. Always test updates carefully before applying them everywhere, and consult HPE's official documentation for your specific OneView version and deployment configuration.

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