Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-59351

Memory Safety in Linuxfoundation Dragonfly ≤ 2.1.0

Published
17 September 2025
Modified
18 September 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 2.7
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:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/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 0.0029 22th percentile
Risk Priority 15 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-59351 is a low-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linuxfoundation Dragonfly. Its CVSS base score is 2.7 (Low).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 22th 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-11 (Error Handling) and SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Dragonfly is an open source P2P-based file distribution and image acceleration system. Prior to 2.1.0, the first return value of a function is dereferenced even when the function returns an error. This can result in a nil dereference, and cause…

more

code to panic. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.1.0.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
Why these techniques?

Nil pointer dereference allows remote peers to send crafted requests causing Dragonfly service panic/crash, enabling endpoint DoS via application exploitation.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-59348Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2025-59350Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2026-24124Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2025-59345Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2025-59352Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2023-27584Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2025-59346Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2025-59347Same product: Linuxfoundation Dragonfly
CVE-2026-23831Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2025-68141Same vendor: Linuxfoundation

Affected Assets

linuxfoundation
dragonfly
≤ 2.1.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-11 Error Handling
  • SC-24 Fail in Known State
  • SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Requires the system to handle error conditions (such as non-nil error returns) without dereferencing invalid values, directly preventing the nil-pointer panic described in CVE-2025-59351.

prevent

Mandates that the system fail in a known safe state rather than crashing via unhandled panics when a called function returns an error.

prevent

Requires developer testing and code analysis that would detect missing error checks before dereference, catching the exact flaw fixed in Dragonfly 2.1.0.

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 (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

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.

detects

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References