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CISA and USCG Issue Joint Advisory to Strengthen Cyber Hygiene in Critical Infrastructure

CISA, in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory aimed at helping critical infrastructure organizations improve their cyber hygiene. This follows a proactive threat hunt engagement conducted at a U.S. critical infrastructure facility.

During this engagement, CISA and USCG did not find evidence of malicious cyber activity or actor presence on the organization’s network but did identify several cybersecurity risks. CISA and USCG are sharing their findings and associated mitigations to assist other critical infrastructure organizations identify potential similar issues and take proactive measures to improve their cybersecurity posture. The mitigations include best practices such as not storing passwords or credentials in plaintext, avoiding sharing local administrator account credentials, and implementing comprehensive logging.

For more detailed mitigations addressing the identified cybersecurity risks, review joint Cybersecurity Advisory: CISA and USCG Identify Areas for Cyber Hygiene Improvement After Conducting Proactive Threat Hunt at US Critical Infrastructure Organization. 

CISA Releases Two Industrial Control Systems Advisories

CISA released two Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on July 31, 2025. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review newly released ICS advisories for technical details and mitigations.

Güralp Systems Güralp FMUS series

View CSAF

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • CVSS v4 9.3
  • ATTENTION: Exploitable remotely/Low attack complexity
  • Vendor: Güralp Systems
  • Equipment: Güralp FMUS Series Seismic Monitoring Devices
  • Vulnerability: Missing Authentication for Critical Function

2. RISK EVALUATION

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to modify hardware configurations, manipulate data, or factory reset the device.

3. TECHNICAL DETAILS

3.1 AFFECTED PRODUCTS

The following versions of Güralp FMUS series are affected:

  • Güralp FMUS Series Seismic Monitoring Devices: All versions

3.2 Vulnerability Overview

3.2.1 MISSING AUTHENTICATION FOR CRITICAL FUNCTION CWE-306

The affected products expose an unauthenticated Telnet-based command line interface that could allow an attacker to modify hardware configurations, manipulate data, or factory reset the device.

CVE-2025-8286 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

A CVSS v4 score has also been calculated for CVE-2025-8286. A base score of 9.3 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N).

3.3 BACKGROUND

  • CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTORS: Critical Manufacturing
  • COUNTRIES/AREAS DEPLOYED: Worldwide
  • COMPANY HEADQUARTERS LOCATION: United Kingdom

3.4 RESEARCHER

Souvik Kandar of MicroSec (microsec.io) reported this vulnerability to CISA.

4. MITIGATIONS

Güralp did not respond to CISA's attempts at coordination. Users of Güralp are encouraged to contact Güralp and keep their systems up to date.

CISA recommends users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of this vulnerability, such as:

  • Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, ensuring they are not accessible from the internet.
  • Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls and isolating them from business networks.
  • When remote access is required, use more secure methods, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), recognizing VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize VPN is only as secure as the connected devices.

CISA reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

CISA also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS webpage on cisa.gov/ics. Several CISA products detailing cyber defense best practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.

CISA encourages organizations to implement recommended cybersecurity strategies for proactive defense of ICS assets.

Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available on the ICS webpage at cisa.gov/ics in the technical information paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B--Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies.

Organizations observing suspected malicious activity should follow established internal procedures and report findings to CISA for tracking and correlation against other incidents.

No known public exploitation specifically targeting this vulnerability has been reported to CISA at this time.

5. UPDATE HISTORY

  • July 31, 2025: Initial Publication

Rockwell Automation Lifecycle Services with VMware

View CSAF

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • CVSS v4 9.4
  • ATTENTION: Low attack complexity
  • Vendor: Rockwell Automation
  • Equipment: Lifecycle Services with VMware
  • Vulnerabilities: Out-of-bounds Write, Use of Uninitialized Resource

2. RISK EVALUATION

Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could lead to code execution on the host or leakage of memory from processes communicating with vSockets.

3. TECHNICAL DETAILS

3.1 AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Rockwell Automation reports the following Lifecycle Services with VMware are affected:

  • Industrial Data Center (IDC) with VMware: Generations 1 – 4
  • VersaVirtual Appliance (VVA) with VMware: Series A & B
  • Threat Detection Managed Services (TDMS) with VMware: All versions
  • Endpoint Protection Service with Rockwell Automation Proxy & VMware only: All versions
  • Engineered and Integrated Solutions with VMware: All versions

3.2 Vulnerability Overview

3.2.1 Out-of-bounds Write CWE-787

An integer-overflow vulnerability exists in the VMXNET3 virtual network adapter used in VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion. Exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to code execution on the host.

CVE-2025-41236 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.3 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

A CVSS v4 score has also been calculated for CVE-2025-41236. A base score of 9.4 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H).

3.2.2 Out-of-bounds Write CWE-787

An integer-underflow vulnerability exists in the Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) of VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion, which can lead to an out-of-bounds write. Exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to code execution on the host.

CVE-2025-41237 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.3 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

A CVSS v4 score has also been calculated for CVE-2025-41237. A base score of 9.4 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H).

3.2.3 Out-of-bounds Write CWE-787

A heap-overflow vulnerability exists in the Paravirtualized SCSI (PVSCSI) controller of VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion, which can lead to an out-of-bounds write. Exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to code execution on the host.

CVE-2025-41238 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.3 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

A CVSS v4 score has also been calculated for CVE-2025-41238. A base score of 9.4 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H).

3.2.4 Use of Uninitialized Resource CWE-908

An information disclosure vulnerability exists in vSockets due to the use of uninitialized memory in VMware ESXi, Workstation, Fusion, and VMware Tools. Exploitation of this vulnerability can result in the leakage of memory from processes communicating with vSockets.

CVE-2025-41239 has been assigned to this vulnerability. A CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N).

A CVSS v4 score has also been calculated for CVE-2025-41239. A base score of 8.2 has been calculated; the CVSS vector string is (CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:N/SA:N).

3.3 BACKGROUND

  • CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTORS: Critical Manufacturing
  • COUNTRIES/AREAS DEPLOYED: Worldwide
  • COMPANY HEADQUARTERS LOCATION: United States

3.4 RESEARCHER

Rockwell Automation reported these vulnerabilities to CISA.

4. MITIGATIONS

Rockwell Automation will contact impacted users with an active Rockwell Automation Infrastructure Managed Service contract or Threat Detection Managed Service contract to discuss actions needed for remediation efforts.

Rockwell recommends users without Rockwell Automation managed services contract to refer to Broadcom's advisories below:

Rockwell Automation encourages users of the affected software who are not able to upgrade to one of the corrected versions to apply security best practices where possible.

For more information refer to Rockwell Automation's security advisory.

CISA recommends users take defensive measures to minimize the risk of exploitation of these vulnerabilities, such as:

  • Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, ensuring they are not accessible from the Internet.
  • Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls and isolating them from business networks.
  • When remote access is required, use more secure methods, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), recognizing VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize VPN is only as secure as the connected devices.

CISA reminds organizations to perform proper impact analysis and risk assessment prior to deploying defensive measures.

CISA also provides a section for control systems security recommended practices on the ICS webpage on cisa.gov/ics. Several CISA products detailing cyber defense best practices are available for reading and download, including Improving Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity with Defense-in-Depth Strategies.

CISA encourages organizations to implement recommended cybersecurity strategies for proactive defense of ICS assets.

Additional mitigation guidance and recommended practices are publicly available on the ICS webpage at cisa.gov/ics in the technical information paper, ICS-TIP-12-146-01B--Targeted Cyber Intrusion Detection and Mitigation Strategies.

Organizations observing suspected malicious activity should follow established internal procedures and report findings to CISA for tracking and correlation against other incidents.

No known public exploitation specifically targeting these vulnerabilities has been reported to CISA at this time. These vulnerabilities are not exploitable remotely.

5. UPDATE HISTORY

  • July 31, 2025: Initial republication of Rockwell Automation security advisory

Thorium Platform Public Availability

Today, CISA, in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, announced the public availability of Thorium, a scalable and distributed platform for automated file analysis and result aggregation. Thorium enhances cybersecurity teams' capabilities by automating analysis workflows through seamless integration of commercial, open-source, and custom tools. It supports various mission functions, including software analysis, digital forensics, and incident response, allowing analysts to efficiently assess complex malware threats.

Thorium enables teams that frequently analyze files to achieve scalable automation and results indexing within a unified platform. Analysts can integrate command-line tools as Docker images, filter results using tags and full-text search, and manage access with strict group-based permissions.  

Designed to scale with hardware using Kubernetes and ScyllaDB, Thorium can ingest over 10 million files per hour per permission group while maintaining rapid query performance. It also allows users to define event triggers and tool execution sequences, control the platform via RESTful API, and aggregate outputs for further analysis or integration with downstream processes.

CISA encourages cybersecurity teams to use Thorium and provide feedback to enhance its capabilities. For more information on Thorium and how it can improve your cybersecurity operations, see CISA’s Thorium resource webpage. 

Eviction Strategies Tool Released

Today, CISA released the Eviction Strategies Tool to provide cyber defenders with critical support and assistance during the containment and eviction phases of incident response. This tool includes:

  • Cyber Eviction Strategies Playbook Next Generation (Playbook-NG): A web-based application for next-generation operations.
  • COUN7ER: A database of atomic post-compromise countermeasures users can execute based on adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures.

Together, Playbook-NG and COUN7ER create a systematic, tailored eviction plan that leverages distinct countermeasures to effectively contain and evict adversarial intrusions.

The Eviction Strategies Tool directly addresses a critical gap: the need for a clear understanding of the necessary actions to properly contain and evict adversaries from networks and devices.

CISA encourages cyber defenders to use the Eviction Strategies Tool available on the CISA Eviction Strategies Tool webpage or download it directly from GitHub at https://github.com/cisagov/playbook-ng. Check out our fact sheet for more information: Eviction Strategies Tool | CISA.

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