Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:LSummary
CVE-2025-32990 is a medium-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 49% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — 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-2025-32990 is a heap-buffer-overflow vulnerability stemming from an off-by-one error in the GnuTLS software library, specifically within the template parsing logic of the certtool utility. This flaw occurs when certtool processes certain settings from a template file, enabling an out-of-bounds NULL pointer write that leads to memory corruption. The issue is classified under CWE-122 (Heap-based Buffer Overflow) and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L), indicating medium severity with network accessibility, low attack complexity, and no requirements for privileges or user interaction.
An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability remotely by supplying a maliciously crafted template file to a system running vulnerable versions of certtool. Successful exploitation triggers memory corruption, resulting in a denial-of-service condition that could crash the affected system. While the impact is limited to low integrity and availability disruption with no confidentiality loss, the lack of privileges needed makes it accessible to remote adversaries targeting GnuTLS deployments.
Red Hat has addressed this vulnerability through multiple errata releases, including RHSA-2025:16115, RHSA-2025:16116, RHSA-2025:17181, RHSA-2025:17348, and RHSA-2025:17361, which provide updated packages for affected Red Hat products using GnuTLS. Security practitioners should apply these patches promptly to mitigate the risk of exploitation.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-20990
Vulnerability Data
A heap-buffer-overflow (off-by-one) flaw was found in the GnuTLS software in the template parsing logic within the certtool utility. When it reads certain settings from a template file, it allows an attacker to cause an out-of-bounds (OOB) NULL pointer write,…
more
resulting in memory corruption and a denial-of-service (DoS) that could potentially crash the system.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
—
—
—
V1.4.1
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and memory-error detectors) can discover heap overflows after they have been coded.
Input validation enforces bounds checking on data written to heap buffers, directly stopping the overflow condition from being introduced.
Security engineering principles require use of memory-safe constructs and bounds-checked allocation routines that avoid introducing heap overflows.
Memory-protection mechanisms limit the ability of a heap overflow to execute attacker-controlled code or corrupt adjacent structures.
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.
Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.
Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover heap-overflow flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.
Timely patching removes known heap-overflow instances after they exist.
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.
Security testing in development and acceptance can detect heap overflows before release.
Secure development lifecycle mandates practices that reduce the likelihood of introducing heap overflows.
Application security requirements can specify bounds-checking and safe memory APIs that mitigate heap overflows.
Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safety and input-validation controls that address heap overflows.
Secure coding standards directly prescribe techniques (safe functions, bounds checks) that prevent heap-based buffer overflows.
Change management ensures controlled deployment of fixes for discovered heap-overflow vulnerabilities.