CVE-2025-60021 critical remote command injection vulnerability in Apache bRPC

Jan 20

BLUF

A remote command injection vulnerability in Apache bRPC (versions < 1.15.0) allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary system commands by manipulating the extra_options parameter in the heap profiler service.

Executive Cost Summary

This cost analysis was developed by the CyberDax team using expert judgment and assisted analytical tools to support clarity and consistency.

For organizations affected by unauthenticated remote command injection exploitation of Apache bRPC services, financial exposure is driven by rapid incident response requirements, service disruption risk, and downstream governance obligations tied to loss of system control.

· Low-end total cost: $250,000 – $750,000

o (limited exploitation, rapid patching, minimal lateral movement)

· Typical expected range: $1.2M – $3.5M

o (production exposure, short outage, partial system compromise)

· Upper-bound realistic scenarios: $5M – $9M

o (extended service disruption, data integrity impact, regulatory scrutiny)

Key Cost Drivers

· Duration of exposed bRPC services prior to patch deployment

· Scope of production systems running vulnerable heap profiler service

· Degree of attacker command execution and lateral movement

· Availability and maturity of incident response retainers

· Regulatory environment tied to affected data or services

Targeted Sectors

Primarily technology and enterprise sectors using Apache bRPC for distributed systems.

Countries

· Global

Date of First Reported Activity

· January 16, 2026

Date of Last Reported Activity Update

· January 20, 2026

CVE-2025-60021

CVSS 3.1

· (9.8) AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Nessus ID

· Not applicable at time of reporting.

Is CVE-2025-60021 in the KEV catalog?

· Not applicable at time of reporting

Mitigation Data

· Upgrade Apache bRPC to version 1.15.0 or later.

· Disable the built-in heap profiler service if not required for production environments.

Patch Release Date

· January 16, 2026

URL to patch information

· hxxps://lists.apache.org/thread/xy51d2fx6drzhfp92xptsx5845q7b37m

APT Names

· No specific APT group has been publicly linked to CVE-2025-60021

Associated Criminal Organizations

· No specific criminal organization has been publicly linked to CVE-2025-60021

Malware Names

· No malware has been associated with CVE-2025-60021

Malware Sample

· Not applicable at this time

Tools Used by Attackers

· Custom exploit scripts targeting the /pprof/heap endpoint.

IOCs

Vulnerability Context and Behavioral IOCs

Since this is a command injection flaw, defenders should monitor for the following behavioral patterns:

· Malicious URL Parameters

o Look for unusual or encoded system commands (e.g., ;, &&, |) within the extra_options parameter of the /pprof/heap endpoint.

· Unauthorized Process Execution

o Monitor for brpc-related services spawning unexpected child processes like /bin/sh, powershell.exe, or network-utility tools (e.g., curl, wget, nc).

· Outbound Network Activity

o Watch for unexpected outbound connections from servers running bRPC, which may indicate command execution attempting to reach a command-and-control (C2) server or download additional payloads.

TTPs

Initial Access

T1190: Exploit Public-Facing Application

Adversaries can exploit this vulnerability in the publicly accessible bRPC heap profiler service to gain initial access to the underlying server.

Execution

T1203: Exploitation for Client Execution

The core of the vulnerability is the improper neutralization of special elements in a command, allowing for remote code execution via command injection.

T1059: Command and Scripting Interpreter

Attackers leverage the system's command-line interface to execute arbitrary commands through the unvalidated extra_options parameter.

Defense Evasion

· T1211 Exploitation for Defense Evasion

o Command injection can be used to bypass security controls or execute payloads that reside entirely in memory, minimizing the on-disk footprint.

Impact

· T1498 Network Denial of Service

o Exploitation can lead to significant service disruption or total loss of availability (DoS).

· T1565 Data Manipulation

o Attackers may gain unauthorized access to modify or delete sensitive data once command execution is achieved.

Suggested rules / potential hunts

Suricata

This rule monitors for HTTP traffic targeting the vulnerable endpoint with common command injection characters (e.g., ;, |, &, or backticks) in the extra_options parameter

alert http $EXTERNAL_NET any -> $HOME_NET any (msg:"ET EXPLOIT Apache bRPC Remote Command Injection (CVE-2025-60021)"; flow:established,to_server; content:"GET"; http_method; content:"/pprof/heap"; http_uri; content:"extra_options="; http_uri; pcre:"/extra_options=[^&\s]*[;|`&$<>]/Ui"; reference:cve,2025-60021; classtype:attempted-admin; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

SentinelOne

Search for suspicious child processes spawned by an Apache bRPC process (typically brpc_server or similar binary) after receiving requests to the heap profiler.

Target processes spawned by bRPC that look like command shells

EventType = "Process Creation"

AND (ParentProcessName = "brpc_server" OR ParentProcessName CONTAINS "brpc")

AND (ProcessName IN ("sh", "bash", "cmd.exe", "powershell.exe", "nc", "wget", "curl"))

AND (CommandLine CONTAINS "/pprof/heap" OR ParentCommandLine CONTAINS "extra_options")

Splunk

Web Log Hunting (Check for exploit attempts in URIs):

index=web_logs sourcetype=access_combined

uri_path="/pprof/heap" AND uri_query="*extra_options=*"

| rex field=uri_query "extra_options=(?<injected_cmd>[^&]+)"

| eval is_malicious=if(match(injected_cmd, "[;|`&$<>]"), "Yes", "No")

| where is_malicious="Yes"

| table _time, clientip, uri_path, injected_cmd

Process Execution Hunting (Endpoint logs)

index=endpoint_logs (sourcetype="linux_secure" OR sourcetype="WinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational")

parent_process_name="brpc_server"

process_name IN ("sh", "bash", "curl", "wget", "nc")

| table _time, host, parent_process_name, process_name, command_line

Delivery Method

· Direct network-based HTTP requests to the vulnerable API endpoint.

Email sample