Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-29365

Memory Safety in Spimsimulator Spim ≤ 9.1.24

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
22 August 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0050 40th percentile
Risk Priority 71 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-29365 is a critical-severity Classic Buffer Overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability in Spimsimulator Spim. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 40th 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 AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-25 (Reference Monitor) — 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-2025-29365 is a buffer overflow vulnerability in the READ_STRING_SYSCALL function of spimsimulator spim versions v9.1.24 and earlier. Published on 2025-08-22, it carries 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) and is associated with CWEs-120 (Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input), CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read), CWE-274 (Improper Handling of Insufficient Buffer Space), and CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write).

The vulnerability enables exploitation by a remote, unauthenticated attacker with no privileges required and no user interaction needed. Attackers can trigger the buffer overflow over the network with low complexity, potentially achieving high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, such as arbitrary code execution or system compromise.

Advisories and additional details are available in referenced resources, including a GitHub Gist at https://gist.github.com/Giles-one/3a80cd1c7014e50601bd1c0dd9d41663 and a GitHub repository README at https://github.com/Giles-one/spimsimulatorEscape?tab=readme-ov-file#bug1-out-of-bounds-write-in-read_input-function, which describes the issue as an out-of-bounds write in the read_input function. No specific patches or mitigations are detailed in the provided information.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

spimsimulator spim v9.1.24 and before is vulnerable to Buffer Overflow in READ_STRING_SYSCALL.

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.
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
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-2023-0970Shared CWE-120, CWE-125
CVE-2026-30981Shared CWE-120, CWE-125
CVE-2024-10467Shared CWE-120, CWE-125
CVE-2026-28857Shared CWE-120, CWE-125
CVE-2026-28859Shared CWE-120, CWE-125
CVE-2023-43548Shared CWE-120, CWE-787
CVE-2023-7222Shared CWE-120, CWE-787
CVE-2023-3164Shared CWE-120, CWE-787
CVE-2024-52066Shared CWE-120, CWE-787
CVE-2024-44157Shared CWE-120, CWE-787

Affected Assets

spimsimulator
spim
≤ 9.1.24

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.2.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Always-invoked reference monitor guarantees privilege checks occur and cannot be bypassed or mishandled.

Enforces approved authorizations so insufficient privileges produce a proper denial instead of mishandled failure.

Requires every access request to be decided against current authorizations, preventing ad-hoc privilege handling.

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

Input validation directly enforces size checks before buffer copies.

Least-privilege assignment reduces the frequency of operations that encounter insufficient privileges.

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.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

Enforcing least-privilege access policies directly prevents improper handling of insufficient privileges.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices directly enforce bounds checking and input validation that prevent classic buffer overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes such as code review or scanning detect classic buffer overflows before exploitation.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing unchecked buffer copies with corrected versions.

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

Privileged-access-rights control directly limits the situations in which insufficient privileges can occur.

prevents

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

finds

Security testing in development and acceptance can detect buffer overflows through fuzzing and static analysis, though it does not prevent them at the source.

prevents

Information-access-restriction mechanisms enforce least-privilege checks that mitigate the weakness at runtime.

prevents

Access control policy defines privilege boundaries but does not guarantee correct runtime handling when privileges prove insufficient.

prevents

Access-rights provisioning and review reduce privilege gaps, yet do not address the software’s failure to handle insufficient privileges gracefully.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
  • V-271452 OL 9 must use a Linux Security Module configured to enforce limits on system services. prevents CWE-274
  • V-271640 OL 9 must be configured so that the Network File System (NFS) is configured to use RPCSEC_GSS. prevents CWE-274
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
  • V-258078 RHEL 9 must use a Linux Security Module configured to enforce limits on system services. prevents CWE-274

References