A high-severity vulnerability (CVE-2025-0618) in FireEye’s Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agent has been disclosed, enabling attackers to trigger persistent denial-of-service (DoS) conditions and potentially execute unauthorized code.
The flaw, impacting tamper protection mechanisms in FireEye’s HX service, could allow malicious actors to disable critical security features indefinitely, even after system reboots.
Trellix, FireEye’s parent company, has acknowledged the issue and is urging immediate mitigation
Vulnerability Overview
The vulnerability stems from improper handling of tamper protection events by the FireEye EDR agent.
Attackers can exploit it by sending a specially crafted event to the HX service, triggering an unhandled exception.
This disrupts tamper protection alerts and persists across reboots, leaving systems vulnerable to further attacks.
Risk Factor Table
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| CVE ID | CVE-2025-0618 |
| CVSS Score | Pending (Assessed as High Severity) |
| Attack Vector | Remote code execution via malicious event injection |
| Impact | Persistent DoS, disabled tamper protection, potential lateral movement |
| Affected Versions | FireEye EDR Agent HX 10.0.0 |
Technical Breakdown
The exploit leverages weaknesses in how the EDR agent processes tamper protection events.
By injecting a malicious event, attackers cause the HX service to halt all subsequent tamper protection processing.
Cybersecurity analyst Priya Sharma emphasized, “This flaw undermines tools designed to stop advanced threats, creating pathways for ransomware or data exfiltration”.
- Attack Chain:
Trellix’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) confirmed the vulnerability and is working with customers to deploy patches.
Mitigation Strategies
Organizations using FireEye EDR must act swiftly to reduce exposure:
Immediate Actions
- Apply vendor-provided patches for FireEye EDR Agent HX 10.0.0.
- Monitor HX service logs for anomalous tamper protection events.
- Isolate vulnerable systems and enforce network segmentation.
Long-Term Recommendations
- Implement secondary detection tools to identify bypassed security events.
- Conduct attack simulations to assess system resilience.
Trellix advises, “Prioritize updating EDR agents and review endpoint configurations to ensure layered defenses”.
As security tools increasingly become attack vectors, proactive mitigation and vigilance are critical to thwarting evolving threats.
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