CVE-2025-15281
Gnu Glibc 2.0 – 2.43
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-15281 is a high-severity Use of Uninitialized Resource (CWE-908) vulnerability in Gnu Glibc. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 36th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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.
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-2025-15281 is a vulnerability in the GNU C Library (glibc), affecting versions 2.0 through 2.42. It occurs in the wordexp function when invoked with the WRDE_REUSE flag in conjunction with WRDE_APPEND, causing the interface to return uninitialized memory in the we_wordv member of the wordexp_t structure. A subsequent call to wordfree on this structure may trigger a process abort. The issue is classified under CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource) with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), indicating high severity primarily due to availability impact.
The vulnerability can be exploited remotely over a network by unauthenticated attackers with low complexity and no user interaction required. Exploitation involves crafting input that triggers the specific flag combination in an application using wordexp, leading to uninitialized memory exposure in we_wordv. This results in a denial-of-service condition when wordfree is called, as the process aborts due to invalid memory access.
Mitigation details are available in the referenced advisories, including the Sourceware Bugzilla entry at https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=33814 and the oss-security mailing list announcement at http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/01/20/3, which discuss patches and workarounds for affected glibc versions.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-3385
Vulnerability Data
Calling wordexp with WRDE_REUSE in conjunction with WRDE_APPEND in the GNU C Library version 2.0 to version 2.42 may cause the interface to return uninitialized memory in the we_wordv member, which on subsequent calls to wordfree may abort the process.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) can find uses of uninitialized resources after they are coded.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate initialization checks and safe patterns that stop the weakness from being introduced.
Engineering principles can require explicit resource initialization before use, structurally avoiding uninitialized access.
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.
Secure SDLC activities such as static analysis and code review directly prevent use of uninitialized resources while also addressing many other weaknesses.
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.
Security testing in development and acceptance can detect uninitialized resource usage through dynamic analysis and fuzzing.
Secure development life cycle mandates initialization checks and static analysis that can catch uninitialized resource use.
Application security requirements can specify mandatory initialization of variables and resources before use.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include defensive coding practices that prevent use of uninitialized memory or objects.
Secure coding standards directly require explicit initialization of all variables and resources, substantially mitigating CWE-908.