CISA KEV Alert: Langflow, N-Central & Apache Tomcat Actively Exploited — Patch Within 72 Hours

As reported by BleepingComputer, CISA has issued an urgent directive adding actively exploited vulnerabilities in Langflow, SolarWinds N-Central, and Apache Tomcat to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, giving federal civilian agencies an exceptionally tight three-day remediation window. This compressed timeline is a strong signal: exploitation is not theoretical — it is ongoing.

Vulnerability Breakdown

CVE-2025-3248 — Langflow (AI Workflow Platform): Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.8); Type: Missing authentication on a critical endpoint allowing unauthenticated remote code execution; Affected Versions: Langflow prior to 1.3.0; Patch Available: Yes — upgrade to Langflow 1.3.0 or later; Active Exploitation: Confirmed
CVE-2024-1709 / Related — SolarWinds N-Central: Severity: High; Type: Authentication bypass enabling privilege escalation; Affected Products: SolarWinds N-Central (specific builds per vendor advisory); Patch Available: Yes — vendor patch released; consult SolarWinds security portal; Active Exploitation: Confirmed
CVE-2025-24813 — Apache Tomcat: Severity: Important/High (CVSS 9.8 under certain configurations); Type: Partial PUT request handling flaw enabling remote code execution via deserialization; Affected Versions: Apache Tomcat 11.0.0-M1 through 11.0.2, 10.1.0-M1 through 10.1.34, 9.0.0-M1 through 9.0.98; Patch Available: Yes — upgrade to 11.0.3+, 10.1.35+, or 9.0.99+; Active Exploitation: Confirmed

Why This Cluster of Vulnerabilities Should Alarm You

What makes this KEV addition particularly concerning is the diversity of the affected products. This isn't a single vendor's supply chain problem — it spans the AI development ecosystem (Langflow), enterprise IT management infrastructure (N-Central), and one of the world's most ubiquitous Java application servers (Apache Tomcat). Attackers exploiting all three simultaneously suggests either broad opportunistic scanning campaigns or targeted threat actors building multi-vector access into enterprise environments.

Langflow deserves special attention here. As AI-native development platforms proliferate across enterprises, security teams often treat them as internal tooling with looser controls. A missing authentication vulnerability on a platform that executes arbitrary AI workflows is, in practical terms, a direct path to code execution on the underlying host — often in cloud-adjacent environments with significant downstream access.

The Tomcat flaw (CVE-2025-24813) is particularly dangerous because of Apache Tomcat's ubiquity. It powers an enormous share of Java-based enterprise web applications, including many internal tools, legacy systems, and middleware components that don't receive the same patch urgency as customer-facing applications. The attack surface here is massive.

N-Central's exploitation is equally worrying from a managed services perspective. RMM and endpoint management platforms have become high-value targets precisely because compromising them yields lateral movement across every managed endpoint — a single pane of glass for attackers, just as it is for administrators.

Who Is Most at Risk

Federal agencies and government contractors — under BOD 22-01 mandate with a 72-hour window

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) using SolarWinds N-Central for client endpoint management

Development and data science teams running Langflow instances, especially if internet-exposed or in shared cloud environments

Java application hosting environments — any organization running unpatched Apache Tomcat, particularly legacy deployments behind internal firewalls that may not receive routine patch scrutiny

Healthcare, finance, and critical infrastructure sectors, where RMM tool compromise and Java middleware exploitation are historically common attack vectors

Shield53 Recommendations

Immediate Actions (0–72 Hours)

Langflow: Immediately audit all Langflow deployments. Upgrade to version 1.3.0+. If upgrade is not immediately possible, restrict network access to Langflow instances at the firewall level — do not leave these internet-accessible under any circumstances.
Apache Tomcat: Inventory all Tomcat instances across your environment including internal and legacy applications. Patch to 11.0.3+, 10.1.35+, or 9.0.99+ immediately. Disable partial PUT support if patching is delayed.
SolarWinds N-Central: Apply the vendor-released patch immediately. Review access logs for anomalous authentication activity, privilege changes, and unusual agent behavior across managed endpoints.
Check your asset inventory for any unmanaged or shadow deployments of these products — development environments and legacy systems are frequently missed.

Detection and Hunting

Hunt for unexpected outbound connections from Tomcat or Langflow process trees — a common post-exploitation indicator
Review N-Central audit logs for authentication events outside normal admin hours or from unexpected IP ranges
Deploy or update WAF rules to flag suspicious PUT requests and unauthenticated API calls targeting Langflow endpoints
Search SIEM for process spawning anomalies from Java processes (e.g., java.exe spawning cmd.exe or powershell.exe)

Longer-Term Controls

Establish a formal policy requiring AI development tools (including LLM workflow platforms like Langflow) to undergo the same vulnerability management lifecycle as production software
Implement network segmentation to isolate RMM infrastructure from general enterprise networks
Enforce patch SLAs tied to KEV catalog additions — CISA's 72-hour federal mandate is a reasonable benchmark for all organizations handling sensitive data

The addition of these three vulnerabilities to the KEV catalog is not bureaucratic housekeeping — it is a real-time threat signal. Organizations that treat this as a federal-agencies-only concern do so at significant risk. Threat actors do not distinguish between government and commercial targets when the vulnerability is this accessible.