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CVE-2025-59374

From Exploited flaws, HARD’s guide to the flaws being used in attacks · Checked
This article is about a flaw in ASUS Live Update. For every flaw being used in attacks, see Exploited flaws; for ASUS’s, see ASUS flaws being used in attacks.

CVE-2025-59374 is a security flaw in ASUS Live Update, routers for homes and small offices. A tampered release of ASUS Live Update was published with malicious code built in. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added it to its catalog of flaws known to be used in attacks on 17 Dec 2025.[1]

ASUS Live Update is in things households have: home and small-office routers, so the fix matters at home as much as at work. ASUS has published a fix or advice.

Description

CISA calls it an embedded malicious code in ASUS Live Update. In its words: “ASUS Live Update contains an embedded malicious code vulnerability client were distributed with unauthorized modifications introduced through a supply chain compromise. The modified builds could cause devices meeting specific targeting conditions to perform unintended actions. The impacted product could be end-of-life (EoL) and/or end-of-service (EoS). Users should discontinue product utilization.”[1]

The CVE record adds: “"UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED" Certain versions of the ASUS Live Update client were distributed with unauthorized modifications introduced through a supply chain compromise. The modified builds could cause devices meeting specific targeting conditions to perform unintended actions. Only devices that met these conditions and installed the compromised versions were affected. The Live Update client has already reached End-of-Support (EOS) in October 2021, and no currently supported devices or products are affected by this issue.”[2]

The underlying weakness is CWE-506, in MITRE’s list of common software weaknesses.

It scores 9.8 out of 10 on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System, which rates it critical, scored by NVD using CVSS 3.1.[2]

Affected versions

NVD’s record doesn’t list version ranges for it; ASUS’s advisory has them[3]. CISA names the product as ASUS Live Update.

Every device with ASUS Live Update needs the update.

Exploitation

CISA added it to its catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities on 17 Dec 2025, within a day of it being made public. CISA lists a flaw only when it has reliable evidence of it being exploited, and gave US federal agencies until 7 Jan 2026 to fix it.[1]

FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System, which estimates how likely a flaw is to be used in attacks in the next 30 days from what it sees across the internet, puts it at 1%. That’s in the top 32% of the flaws it scores.[4]

CISA assesses it as automatable: attackers can run it against many targets at once.

CISA doesn’t say who was attacked, or how.

Fix

ASUS has published a fix or advice.[3] CISA’s required action: “Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.”[1]

  1. Update ASUS Live Update now.Open the router’s app, or its admin page in a browser, and look for a firmware update. Then turn on automatic updates, so the next fix arrives on its own.
  2. If the maker has stopped updating it, replace it.Routers stop getting fixes after a few years, and attackers keep a list of the ones that did. If there’s no newer firmware, it won’t be fixed.

Timeline

DateEvent
The flaw is made public in the National Vulnerability Database, with a severity score of 9.8.[2]
CISA adds it to its catalog of flaws known to be used in attacks.[1]
CISA’s deadline for US government agencies to fix it.[1]
FIRST puts the odds of it being used in attacks in the next 30 days at 1%.[4]

See also

Other ASUS flaws

Similar flaws

  • CVE-2026-8398, Daemon Tools Lite: tools lite embedded malicious code ·
  • CVE-2026-48027, Nx Console: console embedded malicious code ·
  • CVE-2026-45321, TanStack: unspecified ·
  • CVE-2026-33634, Aquasecurity Trivy: embedded malicious code ·
  • CVE-2025-54313, Prettier eslint-config-prettier: embedded malicious code ·

Added the same day

  • CVE-2025-40602, SonicWall SMA1000 appliance: sMA1000 missing authorization ·
  • CVE-2025-20393, Cisco products: improper input validation ·

Every ASUS flaw on CISA’s list · Everything added in December 2025

References

  1. ^ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “ASUS Live Update Embedded Malicious Code Vulnerability”. Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, added 17 Dec 2025.
  2. ^ National Institute of Standards and Technology. “CVE-2025-59374 Detail”. National Vulnerability Database, published 17 Dec 2025.
  3. ^ ASUS. Advisories and fixes: asus.com, asus.com.
  4. ^ FIRST. “Exploit Prediction Scoring System”. EPSS 0.012, percentile 68.1, 31 Oct 2026.
  5. CVE Program. “CVE-2025-59374”. The official CVE record.

This article is built from CISA’s catalog (version 2026.10.30), NVD’s record and FIRST’s scores, kept in HARD’s database and checked every morning. The plain English is HARD’s.