# CVE-2025-55279: Hard-coded Private Key Vulnerability in ZKTeco WL20

> Attackers with physical access can extract hardcoded private keys from firmware to decrypt data and perform Man-in-the-Middle attacks.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.9 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:P/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 13 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 13 Aug 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-rqpw-qjw3-j3g6

## What is CVE-2025-55279?

CVE-2025-55279 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ZKTeco Co WL20 Biometric Attendance System, published on 13 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

This vulnerability exists in ZKTeco WL20 due to hard-coded private key stored in plaintext within the device firmware. An attacker with physical access could exploit this vulnerability by extracting the firmware and analyzing the binary data to retrieve private key stored in the firmware of the targeted device.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow the attacker to perform unauthorized decryption of sensitive data and Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks on the targeted device.

Weakness: CWE-798 (Use of Hard-coded Credentials)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-55279?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-55279?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-55279 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-55279 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-55279 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-55279 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-55279 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ZKTeco Co WL20 Biometric Attendance System, published on 13 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-55279 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: ZKTeco Co WL20 Biometric Attendance System. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-55279/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-55279/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-55279
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-55279
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-55279

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-55279/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.