Extreme Networks Addresses Critical Security Vulnerabilities in HiveOS (CVE-2025-27227, CVE-2025-27228, CVE-2025-27229)

Published: March 3, 2025
Severity: High (CVSS 7.0)
Impacted Product: Extreme Networks IQ Engine (HiveOS) prior to version 10.7r5

Summary

Extreme Networks has released security advisories addressing three critical vulnerabilities in its IQ Engine (HiveOS) product line. These flaws could allow authenticated attackers to execute arbitrary commands, escalate privileges to root, and decrypt user-level passwords on affected systems.

While these vulnerabilities require authenticated access to exploit, they present significant risks to organizations using HiveOS in production environments—especially those with shared credentials or insufficient internal access controls.

Vulnerability Details

CVE-2025-27227: Arbitrary Command Execution via Client-SSID

In versions prior to 10.7r5, authenticated users can execute arbitrary commands by exploiting the Client-SSID setting through newline injection. Improper input sanitization allows unsanitized commands to be processed, which may lead to full system compromise.

CVE-2025-27228: User-Level Password Decryption via CLI

This vulnerability allows authenticated users to decrypt stored user-level passwords through the command-line interface (CLI), exposing sensitive credentials that could be reused elsewhere in the environment.

CVE-2025-27229: Privilege Escalation via Unsanitized SSH Tunnel Call

A flaw in the SSH tunnel feature allows authenticated users to escalate privileges from standard user-level access to root, granting full control over the device through improper handling of SSH tunnel configurations.

What’s at Risk

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could enable attackers with authenticated access to:

• Execute unauthorized commands on the device
• Decrypt stored user passwords
• Escalate privileges to gain full root access
• Disrupt network operations
• Establish persistent control over network infrastructure

Mitigation Steps

Gradient Cyber strongly recommends the following actions:

1. Upgrade HiveOS to version 10.7r5 or later as soon as possible.
2. Review Extreme Networks' official security advisories for full technical details and remediation steps:
   • HiveOS Client SSID Newline Injection
   • HiveOS User-Level Password Decryption
   • HiveOS Unsanitized SSH Tunnel Call
3. Audit your environment for signs of unauthorized configuration changes or suspicious command executions.
4. Enforce strict access controls to limit authenticated user access to network infrastructure.
5. Rotate passwords for any accounts that may have been exposed through the decryption vulnerability.

Gradient Cyber’s Perspective

These vulnerabilities highlight the importance of securing internal user access—even for authenticated users. Privilege escalation, password exposure, and command injection all provide attackers with dangerous footholds inside the network if left unaddressed.

Gradient Cyber continues to monitor for exploitation trends and will provide updates as further information becomes available.

Need Support?

Gradient Cyber helps organizations detect, prevent, and respond to critical infrastructure vulnerabilities like these. If you need assistance with risk assessment, patch validation, or compromise investigation, our team is ready to help.

Contact us to learn more.