CVE-2025-23215: PMD Designer's release key passphrase (GPG) available on Maven Central in cleartext

Should you act?

Critical and remotely reachable

No known exploitation yet, but it is network-reachable without credentials. This signal is computed from CISA KEV, EPSS and CVSS data; it is not an editorial verdict.

• No confirmed exploitation. It is not in CISA’s KEV catalog and CISA’s SSVC assessment records no known exploitation. That can change quickly after a public write-up; re-check if you are affected.
• EPSS 0.3%, percentile 25: FIRST’s model estimates a 0.3% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 25% of all scored CVEs (low). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
• Remotely reachable with no login and no user interaction. If the vulnerable service is exposed to the internet, prioritize it.
• Only applies if your dependency tree includes net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer (Maven) >= 7.0.0, < 7.10.0, fixed in 7.10.0; net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-core (Maven) >= 6.21.0, < 7.10.0, fixed in 7.10.0; net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-ui (Maven) >= 6.14.0, <= 6.19.0, no fixed version listed. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.

What it is

PMD is an extensible multilanguage static code analyzer. The passphrase for the PMD and PMD Designer release signing keys are included in jar published to Maven Central. The private key itself is not known to have been compromised itself, but given its passphrase is, it must also be considered potentially compromised. As a mitigation, both compromised keys have been revoked so that no future use of the keys are possible. Note, that the published artifacts in Maven Central under the group id net.sourceforge.pmd are not compromised and the signatures are valid.

From the GitHub advisory

Summary While rebuilding PMD Designer for Reproducible Builds and digging into issues, I found out that passphrase for gpg.keyname=0xD0BF1D737C9A1C22 is included in jar published to Maven Central.

Details See https://github.com/jvm-repo-rebuild/reproducible-central/blob/master/content/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-designer/README.md

I removed 2 lines from https://github.com/jvm-repo-rebuild/reproducible-central/blob/master/content/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-designer/pmd-designer-7.0.0.diffoscope but real content is:

PoC

Impact After further analysis, the passphrase of the following two keys have been compromised:

Weakness type: CWE-200, CWE-540, CWE-312.

Product: net.sourceforge.pmd:pmd-designer (Maven) · Assigned by: GitHub_M · Published: 2025-01-31

Affected and fixed versions

Severity scores

• Attack vector: network (remotely reachable)
• Attack complexity: low
• Attack requirements: none
• Privileges required: none (no login)
• User interaction: none

CVSS measures how bad a flaw is if exploited, not how likely exploitation is. Read it next to the exploitation data below.

Exploitation and urgency

• CISA KEV: not listed (no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known to CISA).
• CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation none, automatable yes, technical impact total.
• FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 0.33% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 25.

Timeline

• 2025-01-31 — CVE record published by GitHub_M
• 2025-01-31 — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-88m4-h43f-wx84 published (critical)
• 2025-04-04 — CVE record last updated

Sources and references

Original sources first. Version and fix details should always be confirmed against the vendor or project advisory.

Vulnerability records

1. GitHub Advisory GHSA-88m4-h43f-wx84 github.com
2. CVE.org record CVE-2025-23215 cve.org
3. NVD entry CVE-2025-23215 nvd.nist.gov

Other references from the CVE record and advisory

1. github.com github.com
2. github.com github.com
3. github.com github.com
4. github.com github.com
5. github.com github.com
6. github.com github.com

Critical Maven advisories · Today’s Security Digest