CVE Alert: CVE-2025-11388 – Tenda – AC15

Risk verdict

High risk: remote exploitation of Tenda AC15 via setNotUpgrade is possible with a public exploit; patching should be treated as urgent.

Why this matters

An attacker gaining code execution on the device can fully compromise confidentiality, integrity and availability, and may pivot to other devices on the same network. IoT devices with exposed management interfaces in homes or small offices are common targets, making rapid remediation and network segmentation critical.

Most likely attack path

Remote attacker uses network access to the vulnerable endpoint, requiring low complexity and limited privileges, with no user interaction. A public PoC could trigger a stack-based overflow in /goform/setNotUpgrade, leading to high-severity impact (C/I/A). The attack operates under Scope Unchanged, so the attacker could affect resources within the device without needing to modify other components.

Who is most exposed

Devices in home or small-business networks with accessible management UIs are most exposed, especially units deployed behind consumer routers where remote management is enabled or poorly firewalled.

Detection ideas

• Peaks in traffic to /goform/setNotUpgrade, especially repeated or malformed requests.
• Logs showing crash/restart events or memory corruption indicators after exposure attempts.
• Unusual process crashes or kernel/user-space instability coinciding with probing activity.
• Signatures or IOC patterns tied to public exploits for this CVE.
• Anomalous memory usage or stack traces in device diagnostics.

Mitigation and prioritisation

• Apply firmware update to 15.03.05.18 or newer; verify patch deployment.
• Disable or tightly restrict remote management; implement firewall rules limiting management access to trusted networks.
• Segment IoT devices from critical assets; block WAN access to management interfaces.
• Enable monitoring for exploit signatures and anomalous reboot cycles; deploy IDS/IPS rules if available.
• Plan and document change management: test patch in a lab, then phased rollout with rollback plan.