Hard-coded CredentialsWeakness · CWE-798

CVE-2025-8857

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-29
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Clinic Image System developed by Changing contains hard-coded Credentials, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to log into the system using administrator credentials embedded in the source code.

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

The Clinic Image System developed by Changing contains hard-coded administrator credentials embedded directly in the source code. This allows any unauthenticated remote attacker to log in with administrative privileges by using these embedded credentials, bypassing the normal authentication mechanism entirely.

MitigationImmediately remove all hard-coded credentials from the source code, rotate any exposed credentials, and implement a proper secure credential management system (e.g., environment variables, secrets vault, or external authentication service). Audit the codebase for additional hard-coded secrets.

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 Clinic Image System installation
    Locate the application by searching for directories named 'clinic', 'clinic-image', or 'Changing' on the server. Check running processes or web services for 'clinic-image-system' or port 8080/80 entries serving such content.
    Affected if The system runs the Clinic Image System developed by Changing.
  2. Search source code for hard-coded credentials
    Grep the application source directory for patterns like 'password =', 'pwd =', 'admin', 'hardcoded', 'defaultPassword', or credential-like strings. Focus on source files (.php, .js, .java, .py, .asp) in the web root.
    Affected if String patterns matching hard-coded credentials (usernames/passwords) are found in source files.
  3. Inspect authentication modules
    Examine files related to login, auth, or session handling. Look for credential variables or constants defined outside configuration files, such as '$admin_user = "..."' or 'const ADMIN_PASS = "..."'.
    Affected if Credentials are defined directly in source code rather than loaded from external config or environment variables.
  4. Check config and database files
    Review config.php, settings.conf, or database connection files for embedded admin credentials. Compare credentials against known hard-coded values in the codebase.
    Affected if Credentials appear to be hard-coded strings rather than retrieved from secure storage.
  5. Test authentication with embedded credentials
    If source code reveals hard-coded username/password pairs, attempt to log in to the application using those credentials from a login page or API endpoint.
    Affected if Login succeeds with credentials found embedded in the source code, bypassing normal authentication.

If the Clinic Image System by Changing is deployed and contains hard-coded administrator credentials in its source code that allow login bypass, the environment is affected by CVE-2025-8857.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Immediately remove all hard-coded credentials from the source code, rotate any exposed credentials, and implement a proper secure credential management system (e.g., environment variables, secrets vault, or external authentication service). Audit the codebase for additional hard-coded secrets.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
38.0 hours of engineering $6,760
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-8857 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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