Executive Summary
In June 2025, the RondoDox botnet began exploiting a critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-24893 in the widely used XWiki platform. Threat actors leveraged this zero-day flaw to gain unauthorized control of vulnerable servers, rapidly conscripting them into a growing botnet for malicious purposes, including distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and potential data theft. Victims included enterprises and service providers relying on exposed or poorly-secured XWiki installations, with incident response teams rushing to contain infections and patch affected systems.
This incident exemplifies the increasing sophistication of botnets that exploit newly-disclosed vulnerabilities, highlighting persistent risks to organizations running unpatched collaborative or CMS platforms. The trend underscores an urgent need for proactive vulnerability management, robust segmentation, and real-time traffic monitoring.
Why This Matters Now
XWiki’s widespread adoption and the speed at which the RondoDox botnet weaponized a new CVE illustrate how rapidly threat actors operationalize exploits to compromise internet-facing systems. Immediate action is essential, as attackers increasingly target collaborative platforms for initial access, leaving enterprises vulnerable to lateral movement and data exfiltration.
Attack Path Analysis
The RondoDox botnet exploited the CVE-2025-24893 remote code execution flaw in exposed XWiki servers, gaining initial access. Following compromise, the malware likely leveraged the foothold to escalate privileges, enabling broader system manipulation. From there, it attempted lateral movement to discover and infect other internal servers or workloads. The malware then established command and control (C2) communications back to attacker infrastructure, maintaining persistence and issuing commands. Using these channels, data exfiltration and botnet registration traffic was sent outward. Finally, the attack resulted in server participation as part of the botnet, causing service disruption and potential downstream abuse.
Kill Chain Progression
Initial Compromise
Description
The attacker exploited the unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability CVE-2025-24893 in XWiki to gain initial access to internet-exposed servers.
Related CVEs
CVE-2025-24893
CVSS 9.8An unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in XWiki's SolrSearch macro allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted requests.
Affected Products:
XWiki XWiki Platform – >= 5.3-milestone-2, < 15.10.11, >= 16.0.0-rc-1, < 16.4.1
Exploit Status:
exploited in the wild
MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques
Exploit Public-Facing Application
Command and Scripting Interpreter
Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols
Ingress Tool Transfer
Hijack Execution Flow
Remote Access Software
Resource Hijacking
Potential Compliance Exposure
Mapping incident impact across multiple compliance frameworks.
PCI DSS 4.0 – Security Vulnerabilities Identification and Mitigation
Control ID: 6.1.1
NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500 – Cybersecurity Policy
Control ID: 500.03
DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) – ICT Risk Management Framework
Control ID: Art. 9
CISA ZTMM 2.0 – Continuous Monitoring and Vulnerability Management
Control ID: 5.3
NIS2 Directive – Incident Prevention, Detection, and Response
Control ID: Art. 21(2)(d)
Sector Implications
Industry-specific impact of the vulnerabilities, including operational, regulatory, and cloud security risks.
Information Technology/IT
Critical exposure to RondoDox botnet exploiting XWiki CVE-2025-24893 RCE flaw threatens IT infrastructure requiring immediate zero trust segmentation and threat detection deployment.
Financial Services
Botnet malware targeting server platforms poses severe compliance risks under PCI DSS and NIST frameworks, demanding enhanced egress security and anomaly response capabilities.
Health Care / Life Sciences
XWiki platform vulnerabilities expose HIPAA-regulated systems to remote code execution attacks, necessitating encrypted traffic controls and multicloud visibility for patient data protection.
Government Administration
Public sector XWiki deployments face critical botnet infiltration risks requiring immediate inline IPS implementation and cloud native security fabric for administrative system protection.
Sources
- RondoDox botnet malware now hacks servers using XWiki flawhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/rondodox-botnet-malware-now-hacks-servers-using-xwiki-flaw/Verified
- NVD - CVE-2025-24893https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-24893Verified
- GitHub Security Advisory: GHSA-rr6p-3pfg-562jhttps://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/security/advisories/GHSA-rr6p-3pfg-562jVerified
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Cataloghttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-24893Verified
- RondoDox Botnet Actively Exploits Critical XWiki CVE-2025-24893 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilityhttps://cybersecurefox.com/en/rondodox-botnet-exploits-xwiki-cve-2025-24893-rce/Verified
- XWiki CVE-2025-24893 Exploited in the Wild | Blog | VulnCheckhttps://www.vulncheck.com/blog/xwiki-cve-2025-24893-eitwVerified
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF
Comprehensive Zero Trust segmentation, inline IPS enforcement, strict egress controls, and east-west traffic monitoring would have prevented exploit delivery, limited malware propagation, detected anomalous communications, and stopped data exfiltration throughout the attack’s lifecycle.
Control: Cloud Firewall (ACF)
Mitigation: Prevented external exploit attempts from reaching exposed workloads.
Control: Zero Trust Segmentation
Mitigation: Limited attacker access to only permitted workloads and data scopes.
Control: East-West Traffic Security
Mitigation: Blocked malicious lateral traffic between workloads.
Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement
Mitigation: Blocked unauthorized outbound C2 traffic.
Control: Threat Detection & Anomaly Response
Mitigation: Detected and alerted on anomalous data exfiltration attempts.
Prevented participation in botnet-related outbound attacks.
Impact at a Glance
Affected Business Functions
- Content Management
- Internal Documentation
- Collaboration Platforms
Estimated downtime: 3 days
Estimated loss: $50,000
Potential exposure of sensitive internal documentation and user data due to unauthorized access and code execution.
Recommended Actions
Key Takeaways & Next Steps
- • Immediately deploy and maintain virtual Cloud Firewalls on all public-facing workloads to minimize exposure to newly disclosed vulnerabilities.
- • Implement Zero Trust Segmentation and east-west policy enforcement across all cloud and hybrid workloads to restrict attacker movement post-compromise.
- • Enforce egress filtering with application-aware policy to block malware C2 communications and data exfiltration attempts.
- • Enable distributed, real-time threat detection and anomaly response to rapidly detect and contain suspicious activity.
- • Regularly audit and baseline cloud workloads for unencrypted, unauthorized, or anomalous traffic to proactively identify risks and policy gaps.
