CVE-2025-2338

MediumPublic PoC

Published: 16 March 2025

Published

16 March 2025

Modified

29 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 6.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

EPSS Score 0.0008 23.5th percentile

Risk Priority 13 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-2338 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Matio Project Matio. Its CVSS base score is 6.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 23.5th 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 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly remediates the known heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in tbeu/matio 1.5.28 by requiring timely patching or upgrading of the affected software component.

SI-16 Memory Protection good match

prevent

Implements memory protections such as ASLR, DEP, and heap canaries that directly mitigate exploitation of heap buffer overflows like the one in strdup_vprintf.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

prevent

Validates untrusted inputs before processing by the vulnerable matio library function, reducing the risk of malformed data triggering the buffer overflow.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.

attack.mitre.org →

T1204.002 Malicious File Execution

An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Heap-based buffer overflow in file parsing library (matio) triggered by malicious .mat file enables client-side exploitation for code execution/memory corruption.

Confidence: MEDIUM · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in tbeu matio 1.5.28. Affected is the function strdup_vprintf of the file src/io.c. The manipulation leads to heap-based buffer overflow. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploit has…

been disclosed to the public and may be used.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-2338 is a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability classified as critical in tbeu/matio version 1.5.28. The issue affects the strdup_vprintf function in the src/io.c file, where manipulation can trigger the overflow. It was published on 2025-03-16 with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L) and is associated with CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer) and CWE-122 (Heap-based Buffer Overflow).

The vulnerability can be exploited remotely by unauthenticated attackers (PR:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), though it requires user interaction (UI:R), such as opening a malicious file processed by the affected component. Successful exploitation may result in low-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability effects (C:L/I:L/A:L), potentially leading to memory corruption, denial of service, or limited data tampering depending on the context.

Advisories and details are documented in GitHub issues at https://github.com/tbeu/matio/issues/269 and https://github.com/tbeu/matio/issues/269#issue-2883920922, along with VulDB entries at https://vuldb.com/?ctiid.299802, https://vuldb.com/?id.299802, and https://vuldb.com/?submit.510781. The exploit has been publicly disclosed and may be used by attackers.

Notable context includes the public availability of the exploit, increasing the risk for systems using tbeu/matio 1.5.28 that process untrusted inputs.