CVE-2025-30232

High

Published: 28 March 2025

Published

28 March 2025

Modified

30 September 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0010 27.2th percentile

Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-30232 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Exim Exim. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 27.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068). 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 use-after-free vulnerability in Exim by identifying, testing, and deploying timely patches to affected versions 4.96 through 4.98.1.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

prevent

Implements memory protection safeguards like ASLR and DEP that mitigate exploitation of the use-after-free vulnerability by preventing unauthorized code execution.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

prevent

Enforces least privilege on Exim processes and user accounts, limiting the scope and impact of privilege escalation from local command-line access.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Local use-after-free in Exim directly enables privilege escalation for command-line users via software exploitation.

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

NVD Description

A use-after-free in Exim 4.96 through 4.98.1 could allow users (with command-line access) to escalate privileges.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-30232 is a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) in the Exim mail transfer agent, affecting versions 4.96 through 4.98.1. Published on 2025-03-28, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating a high-severity issue that could lead to privilege escalation for users with command-line access.

The vulnerability can be exploited by local attackers who have command-line access to the system but require no prior privileges (PR:N). Exploitation demands high attack complexity (AC:H) and no user interaction (UI:N), but success grants high impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H) within a changed scope (S:C), allowing privilege escalation.

Mitigation guidance is detailed in the Exim security advisory at https://www.exim.org/static/doc/security/CVE-2025-30232.txt and the OSS-Security mailing list post at http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/03/26/1.