Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-0221

Memory Safety in I0Bit Protected Folder ≤ 1.3.0

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
05 January 2025
Modified
23 January 2025
CVSS Score v4 6.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0036 28th percentile
Risk Priority 30 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2025-0221 is a medium-severity Improper Resource Shutdown or Release (CWE-404) vulnerability in I0Bit Protected Folder. Its CVSS base score is 6.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 28th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability has been found in IOBit Protected Folder up to 1.3.0 and classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects the function 0x22200c in the library pffilter.sys of the component IOCTL Handler. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. The attack…

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needs to be approached locally. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The vendor was contacted early about this disclosure but did not respond in any way.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
T1499.001 OS Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may launch a denial of service (DoS) attack targeting an endpoint's operating system (OS).
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-0222Same product: I0Bit Protected Folder
CVE-2025-0223Same product: I0Bit Protected Folder
CVE-2024-12002Shared CWE-404, CWE-476
CVE-2024-12661Shared CWE-404, CWE-476
CVE-2024-12654Shared CWE-404, CWE-476
CVE-2025-4002Shared CWE-404, CWE-476
CVE-2026-15690Shared CWE-404, CWE-476
CVE-2026-10197Shared CWE-404, CWE-476
CVE-2026-7701Shared CWE-404, CWE-476
CVE-2023-1444Shared CWE-404, CWE-476

Affected Assets

i0bit
protected folder
≤ 1.3.0

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect resource releases after code is written.

Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.

Engineering principles can require explicit resource acquisition/release patterns that stop improper shutdown from being introduced.

Priority-based resource allocation limits the blast radius when released resources are not returned to the pool.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly include coding standards for correct resource allocation and release.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring can detect resource exhaustion caused by improper shutdown or release.

ID.AM-08 partial match
prevents

Lifecycle management of assets can encompass proper resource release at end-of-life or shutdown.

PR.IR-04 partial match
prevents

Capacity management helps surface leaks from unreleased resources but does not prevent the coding flaw.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Including restart, recovery and media-handling instructions reduces the likelihood that resources or sensitive data will be left in an exposed or improperly released state after a failure.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References