Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-1372

Memory Safety in Elfutils Project Elfutils 0.192

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
17 February 2025
Modified
04 November 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 4.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/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 0.0034 27th percentile
Risk Priority 26 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-2025-1372 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Elfutils Project Elfutils. Its CVSS base score is 4.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 27th 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-1372 is a buffer overflow vulnerability in GNU elfutils version 0.192, affecting the dump_data_section and print_string_section functions within the readelf.c file of the eu-readelf component. The issue arises from manipulation of the z/x argument, classified under CWE-119 and CWE-120. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), though described as critical in advisories.

The vulnerability requires local access with low privileges to exploit, involving low complexity and no user interaction. A successful attack triggers a buffer overflow, potentially allowing limited impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, such as partial data exposure, modification, or denial of service. An exploit has been publicly disclosed and may be used by local attackers.

Advisories recommend applying the patch identified by commit hash 73db9d2021cab9e23fd734b0a76a612d52a6f1db to mitigate the issue. Relevant details, including the patch attachment, are documented in Sourceware Bugzilla entries such as bug 32656 and related comments, along with VulDB entry ctiid.295981.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability was found in GNU elfutils 0.192. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function dump_data_section/print_string_section of the file readelf.c of the component eu-readelf. The manipulation of the argument z/x leads to buffer overflow.…

more

An attack has to be approached locally. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The identifier of the patch is 73db9d2021cab9e23fd734b0a76a612d52a6f1db. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-1365Same product: Elfutils Project Elfutils
CVE-2025-1352Same product: Elfutils Project Elfutils
CVE-2025-7463Shared CWE-119, CWE-120
CVE-2025-43214Shared CWE-119, CWE-120
CVE-2025-43441Shared CWE-119, CWE-120
CVE-2025-4145Shared CWE-119, CWE-120
CVE-2026-2139Shared CWE-119, CWE-120
CVE-2026-7418Shared CWE-119, CWE-120
CVE-2025-5910Shared CWE-119, CWE-120
CVE-2025-5330Shared CWE-119, CWE-120

Affected Assets

elfutils project
elfutils
0.192

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2
  • V5.2.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and analysis can find missing size checks before deployment.

Input validation directly enforces size checks before buffer copies.

Secure engineering principles require memory-safe design and coding that structurally avoids buffer-boundary violations.

Memory protection restricts exploitation impact of buffer overflows without eliminating the underlying coding flaw.

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 (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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.

prevents

Secure coding directly requires bounds-checked memory operations, addressing the root cause of CWE-120.

finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

References