Threats / WatchGuard / CVE-2025-9242
CVE-2025-9242
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
WatchGuard Firebox vulnerability
WatchGuard Firebox contains an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the iked process allowing remote unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A remote code execution vulnerability in WatchGuard Firebox's iked daemon permits unauthenticated exploitation without user interaction. The high EPSS score and active exploitation in the wild indicate immediate risk to deployed instances.
CISA KEV Yes · 2025-11-125EPSS 0.913 (verify live)6Exploit Weaponized · public PoC7CVSS 9.33CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: total4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
6 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-11-12).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.913 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.3 (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N) · Affected: WatchGuard, Firebox. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 4.0, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 56 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious network packet targeting the iked process on the Firebox appliance.
Business
The firewall perimeter defense is compromised, exposing the organization's network boundary to direct adversary control.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I trigger the out-of-bounds write to overwrite memory and inject executable code into the iked process.
Business
The attacker gains code execution with the privileges of the iked daemon, potentially the root or system account.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I establish persistent access or pivot to internal network segments behind the compromised firewall.
Business
Internal systems and data become accessible to the attacker, enabling lateral movement and data exfiltration.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by WatchGuardCNA
Credited with finding itbtaolfinder
Found an error? Propose a correction.
A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source,
gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the
correction convention and our identity
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