Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-59353

Access Control in Linuxfoundation Dragonfly ≤ 2.1.0

Published
17 September 2025
Modified
18 September 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 7.7
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:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/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 0.0022 12th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-59353 is a high-severity Improper Certificate Validation (CWE-295) vulnerability in Linuxfoundation Dragonfly. Its CVSS base score is 7.7 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 12th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and IA-5 (Authenticator Management) — 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, a peer can obtain a valid TLS certificate for arbitrary IP addresses, effectively rendering the mTLS authentication useless. The issue is that the Manager’s Certificate…

more

gRPC service does not validate if the requested IP addresses “belong to” the peer requesting the certificate—that is, if the peer connects from the same IP address as the one provided in the certificate request. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.1.0.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1550 Use Alternate Authentication Material Lateral Movement
Adversaries may use alternate authentication material, such as password hashes, Kerberos tickets, and application access tokens, in order to move laterally within an environment and bypass normal system access controls.
Why these techniques?

Missing authorization in certificate issuance service allows obtaining valid mTLS certs for arbitrary IPs (bypassing auth), directly enabling exploitation of the exposed gRPC service and use of obtained certs as alternate auth material.

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-32855Same vendor: Linuxfoundation
CVE-2025-31736Shared CWE-862
CVE-2024-9109Shared CWE-862
CVE-2023-37887Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-47688Shared CWE-862
CVE-2024-1732Shared CWE-862
CVE-2024-54269Shared CWE-862
CVE-2023-38475Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-31786Shared CWE-862
CVE-2025-31862Shared CWE-862

Affected Assets

linuxfoundation
dragonfly
≤ 2.1.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • IA-5 Authenticator Management
  • SC-17 Public Key Infrastructure Certificates
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 17 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

The Certificate gRPC service must enforce that a peer is only authorized to obtain a certificate containing its own IP address before issuance.

prevent

Directly governs issuance and management of authenticators (TLS certificates) to ensure only validated device identifiers are bound to a peer.

prevent

Requires proper PKI certificate issuance policies that would have prevented binding arbitrary IP addresses without ownership validation.

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.AA-05 full match
prevents

Explicitly requires defining, enforcing, and reviewing authorizations and least privilege, directly preventing missing authorization checks.

PR.AA-03 mostly match
prevents

Certificate-based authentication of users/services/hardware directly depends on correct validation.

PR.DS-02 mostly match
prevents

Proper certificate validation is a core mechanism for protecting data-in-transit confidentiality and integrity.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices explicitly include implementing correct certificate validation logic.

ID.RA-09 partial match
prevents

Assessing authenticity/integrity of acquired software often relies on code-signing certificate validation.

PR.AA-04 partial match
prevents

Identity assertions conveyed via certificates require validation to be verified.

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.

prevents

Requiring authentication and credentials before any access occurs eliminates the absence of authorization checks that would otherwise allow an unauthenticated actor to reach protected resources.

prevents

Requiring formal authorization of every access request before rights are granted ensures that checks for required permissions are performed, preventing missing authorization checks from being introduced.

prevents

Mandatory authorization checks and central records of granted rights ensure that every access attempt is preceded by an explicit decision rather than relying on missing checks.

mitigates

Segregating the approval of access rights from their implementation provides an independent check that reduces the impact of missing authorization checks in the resulting system configuration.

detects

By requiring competent outsiders to verify that every function enforces the need-to-know principle, the control lowers the likelihood that missing authorization checks persist undetected.

prevents

Defining authorization responsibilities and reviewing risk-treatment progress throughout the project lifecycle catches missing authorization checks before the system is deployed.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that reduce the attack surface for weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Derived transitively via CVE→CWE→STIG over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only).

Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
  • V-248574 YUM must be configured to prevent the installation of patches, service packs, device drivers, or OL 8 system components that have not been digitally signed using a certificate that is recognized and approved by the organization. via CWE-295
  • V-248575 OL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. via CWE-295
RHEL 7 (1 rule)
  • V-204447 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components from a repository without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. via CWE-295
RHEL 8 (2 rules)
  • V-230264 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components from a repository without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. via CWE-295
  • V-230265 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. via CWE-295

References