Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-54858

DoS in F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall 15.1.0 – 15.1.10.8

Published
15 October 2025
Modified
21 October 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0032 25th percentile
Risk Priority 44 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-54858 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) vulnerability in F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 25th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

When a BIG-IP Advanced WAF or BIG-IP ASM Security Policy is configured with a JSON content profile that has a malformed JSON schema, and the security policy is applied to a virtual server, undisclosed requests can cause the bd process…

more

to terminate. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-21789Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2024-23308Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2023-23552Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2025-61938Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2025-58474Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2026-22548Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2024-23805Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2025-61935Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2024-23603Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall
CVE-2024-21849Same product: F5 Big-Ip Advanced Web Application Firewall

Affected Assets

f5
big-ip advanced web application firewall
15.1.0 — 15.1.10.8 · 16.1.0 — 16.1.6.1 · 17.1.0 — 17.1.3
f5
big-ip application security manager
15.1.0 — 15.1.10.8 · 16.1.0 — 16.1.6.1 · 17.1.0 — 17.1.3

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Input validation can reject or constrain data that would otherwise drive unbounded recursive calls.

DoS protection mechanisms limit the resource-exhaustion impact of uncontrolled recursion without eliminating the flaw.

System monitoring can observe anomalous resource consumption that signals runaway recursion after it begins.

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.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent coding errors such as missing recursion limits or termination conditions.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of compute resources can detect excessive consumption caused by uncontrolled recursion.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record uncontrolled recursion flaws before deployment.

PR.IR-04 partial match
prevents

Capacity monitoring and resource provisioning can absorb or limit the impact of runaway recursion.

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.

finds

Security testing in development can detect excessive recursion via static analysis or fuzzing.

prevents

Secure development life cycle requires controls that prevent uncontrolled recursion through design and code review.

prevents

Application security requirements can mandate recursion limits or stack-depth checks.

prevents

Secure system architecture principles include resource-management and input-validation rules that limit recursion.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly prohibit or constrain recursive constructs that could exhaust stack or memory.

finds

Capacity management includes monitoring and limits that mitigate resource exhaustion from runaway recursion.

References