CVE-2025-3464 in Armoury Crate
Summary
by MITRE • 06/16/2025
A race condition vulnerability exists in Armoury Crate. This vulnerability arises from a Time-of-check Time-of-use issue, potentially leading to authentication bypass. Refer to the 'Security Update for Armoury Crate App' section on the ASUS Security Advisory for more information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/16/2025
The race condition vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-3464 affects the Armoury Crate application developed by ASUS, representing a critical security flaw that exploits a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) pattern. This vulnerability stems from improper synchronization mechanisms within the application's authentication framework, creating a temporal window where the system's state can be manipulated between the moment when a security check is performed and when the corresponding action is executed. The flaw specifically manifests in the application's handling of user authentication processes, where the system validates credentials at one point in time but then executes operations based on potentially altered conditions before the validation is complete.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a classic race condition scenario where concurrent processes or threads can interfere with each other's execution flow. In the context of Armoury Crate, this manifests when the application performs authentication checks followed by privilege escalation operations without proper atomicity guarantees. The vulnerability allows an attacker to manipulate the system state during this brief temporal gap, potentially enabling unauthorized access to restricted functionalities. This issue falls under CWE-362, which specifically addresses race conditions in software systems, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1566.001 for spearphishing attachments, as the exploitation could occur through malicious software delivery or credential manipulation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple authentication bypass, as it compromises the integrity of the entire application's security model. Attackers could potentially gain elevated privileges within the Armoury Crate environment, which serves as a central hub for system configuration and hardware management tools. This creates a potential escalation path where an attacker could manipulate system settings, access sensitive hardware configurations, or interfere with the proper functioning of system components. The vulnerability affects users who rely on Armoury Crate for managing their ASUS hardware configurations, potentially exposing their systems to unauthorized modifications and compromising the security posture of their computing environments.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing proper synchronization mechanisms and atomic operations within the application's authentication flow. The ASUS security advisory should provide specific patch updates that address the race condition through code-level fixes such as implementing mutex locks, semaphores, or other concurrency control mechanisms. System administrators should ensure immediate deployment of the security update provided by ASUS, while users should avoid running the application with elevated privileges until the patch is applied. Additionally, monitoring for unusual authentication patterns or system access attempts could help detect potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper software design principles and adherence to secure coding practices, particularly in applications that handle sensitive system-level operations and user authentication processes.