CVE-2025-54488
Memory Safety in Libbiosig Project Libbiosig ≤ 3.9.1
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-54488 is a critical-severity Stack-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-121) vulnerability in Libbiosig Project Libbiosig. 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 49th 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 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.
A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-54488 and published on 2025-08-25, affects the MFER parsing functionality in The Biosig Project's libbiosig version 3.9.0 and the master branch at commit 35a819fa. The issue arises in biosig.c at line 8850 during handling of MFER tag 13, where a specially crafted MFER file can overflow the buffer allocated for reading data, as indicated by the code snippet that reads 'len' bytes into 'buf' without sufficient bounds checking, even while warning about lengths exceeding 8 bytes. This vulnerability is classified under CWE-121 and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8.
The vulnerability enables arbitrary code execution and can be exploited remotely by any unauthenticated attacker with network access, requiring low complexity and no user interaction (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). An attacker simply needs to provide a malicious MFER file to an application or system using the affected libbiosig parsing routines, triggering the overflow during file processing.
Advisories are available from Talos Intelligence at https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2025-2234 and https://www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2025-2234.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-25675
Vulnerability Data
A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the MFER parsing functionality of The Biosig Project libbiosig 3.9.0 and Master Branch (35a819fa). A specially crafted MFER file can lead to arbitrary code execution. An attacker can provide a malicious file to…
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trigger this vulnerability.This vulnerability manifests on line 8850 of biosig.c on the current master branch (35a819fa), when the Tag is 13: else if (tag==13) { if (len>8) fprintf(stderr,"Warning MFER tag13 incorrect length %i>8\n",len); curPos += ifread(&buf,1,len,hdr);
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
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Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and analysis can discover stack-buffer overflows before deployment.
Input validation directly stops untrusted data from exceeding stack buffer bounds.
Memory-protection mechanisms limit the ability to execute injected code after a stack overflow.
Secure-engineering principles include bounds-checked coding and safe buffer handling that avoid introducing the flaw.
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 prevent introduction of stack buffer overflows.
Vulnerability scanning can discover stack buffer overflows but does not prevent their introduction.
Patching eliminates known instances of the weakness after discovery.
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 (fuzzing, static analysis) detects stack overflows before release.
Secure SDLC mandates buffer-safety practices that directly prevent stack overflows.
Application security requirements can specify buffer-size and input-validation rules.
Secure architecture principles include memory-safety and least-privilege stack usage.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer handling that causes CWE-121.
Change-management gates can enforce security reviews that catch buffer issues.
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 8 (1 rule)
- V-248594 OL 8 must implement address space layout randomization (ASLR) to protect its memory from unauthorized code execution. prevents CWE-121
Oracle Linux 9 (1 rule)
- V-271452 OL 9 must use a Linux Security Module configured to enforce limits on system services. prevents CWE-121