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Improper Certificate ValidationWeakness · CWE-295

CVE-2025-0254

MEDIUM · 5.9 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-20
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
65/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
HCL Digital Experience components Ring API and dxclient may be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks prior to 9.5 CF226. An attacker could intercept and potentially alter communication between two parties.

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 · moderate confidence

HCL Digital Experience components Ring API and dxclient fail to properly protect network communications from man-in-the-middle attacks, allowing an attacker on the same network to intercept and potentially modify data exchanged between the client and server components.

MitigationUpgrade HCL Digital Experience to version 9.5 CF226 or later, which contains the corrected Ring API and dxclient components that properly secure communications.

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

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
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

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

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 HCL Digital Experience installation and version
    Locate the HCL Digital Experience installation directory and check the version information. Common locations include /opt/hcl/dx or C:\HCL\dx. Look for version files or use dxcmd -version if available.
    Affected if Version is below 9.5 CF226 (the version where the fix was applied)
  2. Check if Ring API component is deployed
    Inspect the deployment configuration or web applications directory for the Ring API component. Look for ring-api.war or similar Ring API deployment artifacts in the webapps or plugins directory.
    Affected if Ring API component is present and version is unpatched
  3. Check if dxclient is in use
    Locate dxclient installations on the system. Search for dxclient directories or binaries. Check for dxclient configuration files that indicate active usage.
    Affected if dxclient is installed and actively used for server communication
  4. Verify network communication security
    Examine the configuration files for Ring API and dxclient to determine if TLS/SSL certificate validation is properly configured. Look for ssl.config, connection.properties, or similar security configuration files.
    Affected if Network communication lacks proper TLS/SSL certificate validation or uses insecure configurations

You are affected if HCL Digital Experience with Ring API or dxclient components is running at a version below 9.5 CF226 and network communications lack proper MITM protection.

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 HCL Digital Experience to version 9.5 CF226 or later, which contains the corrected Ring API and dxclient components that properly secure communications.

Recommended fix High confidence

HCL Digital Experience 9.5 CF226

  1. 1. Identify the current version of HCL Digital Experience Ring API and dxclient components by checking the installation or running version commands
  2. 2. Review the HCL Digital Experience 9.5 CF226 release notes and upgrade documentation from support.hcl-software.com
  3. 3. Create a complete backup of the current DX environment including configuration files and databases
  4. 4. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first
  5. 5. Upgrade the HCL Digital Experience deployment to version 9.5 CF226 or later following the official HCL upgrade procedures
  6. 6. Verify that the Ring API and dxclient components are now running the patched version
  7. 7. Test the certificate validation functionality to confirm the MitM vulnerability is remediated
  8. 8. Deploy the verified upgrade to production
Caveat Review HCL release notes for any configuration or compatibility changes in CF226 before upgrading production systems

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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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-2025-0254 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