CVE-2025-26623

CriticalPublic PoC

Published: 18 February 2025

Published

18 February 2025

Modified

02 September 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0110 78.2th percentile

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

Summary

CVE-2025-26623 is a critical-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Exiv2 Exiv2. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked in the top 21.8% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; 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 mandates identification, reporting, and correction of the heap buffer overflow flaw in Exiv2 versions v0.28.0 to v0.28.4 by upgrading to v0.28.5.

SI-16 Memory Protection good match

prevent

Implements memory protections such as ASLR, DEP, and heap safeguards to prevent arbitrary code execution from the heap buffer overflow during Exiv2 metadata writing.

RA-5 Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning partial match

preventdetect

Requires vulnerability scanning to identify deployed vulnerable Exiv2 instances and subsequent remediation to prevent exploitation via crafted image files.

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?

The heap buffer overflow in Exiv2 enables arbitrary code execution via a crafted image file processed by the victim, directly mapping to exploitation for client execution (T1203) and user execution of malicious file (T1204.002).

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

NVD Description

Exiv2 is a C++ library and a command-line utility to read, write, delete and modify Exif, IPTC, XMP and ICC image metadata. A heap buffer overflow was found in Exiv2 versions v0.28.0 to v0.28.4. Versions prior to v0.28.0, such as…

v0.27.7, are **not** affected. Exiv2 is a command-line utility and C++ library for reading, writing, deleting, and modifying the metadata of image files. The heap overflow is triggered when Exiv2 is used to write metadata into a crafted image file. An attacker could potentially exploit the vulnerability to gain code execution, if they can trick the victim into running Exiv2 on a crafted image file. Note that this bug is only triggered when writing the metadata, which is a less frequently used Exiv2 operation than reading the metadata. For example, to trigger the bug in the Exiv2 command-line application, you need to add an extra command-line argument such as `fixiso`. The bug is fixed in version v0.28.5. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-26623 is a heap buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-416) in the Exiv2 C++ library and command-line utility, which handles reading, writing, deleting, and modifying Exif, IPTC, XMP, and ICC metadata in image files. The issue affects Exiv2 versions from v0.28.0 to v0.28.4; earlier versions such as v0.27.7 are not vulnerable. The overflow occurs specifically during metadata writing operations on a crafted image file.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by providing a maliciously crafted image file and tricking a victim into processing it with Exiv2 using a write operation, such as the `fixiso` command-line argument. Successful exploitation could lead to arbitrary code execution on the victim's system, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) indicating critical severity due to its network accessibility, low complexity, and lack of prerequisites beyond user interaction.

The Exiv2 security advisory (GHSA-38h4-fx85-qcx7) and related GitHub issue (#3168) confirm the vulnerability is fixed in version v0.28.5, recommending that users upgrade immediately. No workarounds are available.