CVE Alert: CVE-2025-12265 – Tenda – CH22

**Risk verdict**: Critical risk; remote code execution is possible with a public PoC and no user interaction, requiring only a low-privilege login to gain full device control.

**Why this matters**: Compromise of the CH22 edge device can give an attacker foothold in the network, with potential traffic interception, device misuse, or pivoting to connected systems. Given the high impact across confidentiality, integrity and availability, exposed devices in homes or small offices are attractive targets for opportunistic attackers and botnets.

**Most likely attack path**: An attacker with access to the device’s management surface can trigger a buffer overflow in fromVirtualSer via crafted requests to /goform/VirtualSer. The exploit requires only low-privilege credentials and no user interaction, enabling remote compromise with total impact. Once on the device, attacker activity could persist or facilitate lateral movement within the local network.

**Who is most exposed**: Typical exposure occurs on consumer/SMB routers deployed in home networks or small offices, especially where the management interface is reachable from LAN or WAN and firmware has not been patched.

**Detection ideas**:

• Unusual crashes or reboots linked to the VirtualSer path
• Logs showing repeated or malformed requests to /goform/VirtualSer
• Memory/CPU spikes or process crash indicators on the device
• Unexpected traffic from the device acting as a gateway or proxy
• Known IoC/IOA patterns from CTI indicators or enterprise WAF alerts

**Mitigation and prioritisation**:

• Apply latest firmware update for CH22 (patch priority high when available)
• If patching is delayed, disable or restrict remote/WAN management of the device
• Implement network segmentation and block admin interfaces from untrusted networks
• Enforce strong admin credentials and rotate defaults; monitor for anomalous admin activity
• Plan and test patch deployment as part of change control; verify post‑patch stability