CVE-2025-1538
Published: 21 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-1538 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Dlink Dap-1320 Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 38.6th 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 are NIST 800-53 SA-22 (Unsupported System Components) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-1538 is a critical heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-119, CWE-122, CWE-787) in the set_ws_action function of the /dws/api/ component within D-Link DAP-1320 firmware version 1.00. Published on 2025-02-21, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), highlighting its severity due to network accessibility and potential for significant impact.
The vulnerability can be exploited remotely by attackers with low privileges, requiring no user interaction and low attack complexity. Successful exploitation enables high-level compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability, such as arbitrary code execution via the buffer overflow. An exploit has been publicly disclosed and may be used against vulnerable devices.
Advisories note that the vulnerability affects products no longer supported by the maintainer, with no patches available. References include the D-Link legacy product page, VulDB entries detailing the issue (ctiid.296479 and id.296479), and a Notion site providing exploit information for the D-Link DAP-1320 set_ws_action vulnerability.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-4522
Vulnerability details
A vulnerability classified as critical was found in D-Link DAP-1320 1.00. Affected by this vulnerability is the function set_ws_action of the file /dws/api/. The manipulation leads to heap-based buffer overflow. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploit has been…
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disclosed to the public and may be used. This vulnerability only affects products that are no longer supported by the maintainer.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Heap buffer overflow in remotely accessible /dws/api/ endpoint directly enables remote exploitation of a public-facing application for arbitrary code execution and initial access.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly prohibits or requires mitigations for unsupported system components like the EOL D-Link DAP-1320 firmware vulnerable to this critical heap buffer overflow.
Requires validation of inputs to the set_ws_action API function to prevent heap-based buffer overflows from malformed data.
Implements memory safeguards such as ASLR and DEP to protect against exploitation of the heap buffer overflow even if invalid inputs are processed.