dbcve.org
Asika Airscale FirmwareOperating system · Nokia

CVE-2023-25185

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-06-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
An issue was discovered on NOKIA Airscale ASIKA Single RAN devices before 21B. A mobile network solution internal fault was found in Nokia Single RAN software releases. Certain software processes in the BTS internal software design have unnecessarily high privileges to BTS embedded operating system (OS) resources.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Nokia Airscale ASIKA Single RAN devices before version 21B contain a privilege escalation vulnerability where certain BTS (Base Transceiver Station) software processes have unnecessarily high privileges to the embedded operating system resources. This internal design flaw allows processes to access OS resources beyond their intended authorization level.

MitigationUpgrade Nokia Airscale ASIKA Single RAN software to version 21B or later to remediate the excessive privilege issue.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Asika Airscale FirmwareOperating system
Affected:= 19b= 20a= 20b= 20c= 21a

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the Nokia Airscale ASIKA device model
    Access the device management interface or CLI and confirm the model is Nokia Airscale ASIKA Single RAN
    Affected if The device is not an Nokia Airscale ASIKA model - this CVE only applies to that specific product line
  2. Determine the installed firmware version
    Check the device firmware/software version through the management interface, CLI command (such as 'show software version' or similar), or system information page
    Affected if The firmware version is 19b, 20a, 20b, 20c, or 21a - these specific versions are affected; version 21B or later is not vulnerable
  3. Verify BTS software components are active
    Check if Base Transceiver Station (BTS) software processes are running on the device via process listing or system status commands
    Affected if BTS processes are running - the vulnerability specifically affects these processes having excessive privileges to OS resources; if BTS is not present or disabled, the exploitation surface is reduced

A user is affected if they have a Nokia Airscale ASIKA Single RAN device running firmware version 19b, 20a, 20b, 20c, or 21a with BTS software components active.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Nokia Airscale ASIKA Single RAN software to version 21B or later to remediate the excessive privilege issue.

Recommended fix High confidence

21B

  1. Review the Nokia AirScale product documentation and release notes for version 21B upgrade procedures
  2. Schedule a maintenance window for the firmware upgrade (BTS upgrades typically require network outage coordination)
  3. Download the official Nokia AirScale firmware version 21B from Nokia's support portal
  4. Backup the current BTS configuration before proceeding with the upgrade
  5. Follow Nokia's standard firmware upgrade procedure for AirScale ASIKA Single RAN devices
  6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the firmware version and confirming normal BTS operation
  7. Monitor the system for any anomalies post-upgrade
Caveat Standard BTS firmware upgrades require planned network downtime and should be tested in a staging environment before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Asika Airscale Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,760
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-25185 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data