Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-61664

Published
18 November 2025
Modified
30 June 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 4.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0014 4th percentile
Risk Priority 36 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-61664 is a medium-severity Expired Pointer Dereference (CWE-825) vulnerability in Gnu (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 4.9 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 4th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the GRUB2 bootloader has been identified in the normal module. This flaw, a memory Use After Free issue, occurs because the normal_exit command is not properly unregistered when its related module is unloaded. An attacker can exploit…

more

this condition by invoking the command after the module has been removed, causing the system to improperly access a previously freed memory location. This leads to a system crash or possible impacts in data confidentiality and integrity.

CWE(s)
CWE-825

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-20212Shared CWE-825
CVE-2025-54770Shared CWE-825
CVE-2026-2436Shared CWE-825
CVE-2025-49795Shared CWE-825
CVE-2025-12119Shared CWE-825
CVE-2026-8854Shared CWE-825
CVE-2025-30653Shared CWE-825
CVE-2026-17523Shared CWE-825
CVE-2026-5165Shared CWE-825
CVE-2025-10911Shared CWE-825

Affected Assets

Gnu
—
inferred from references and description; NVD did not file a CPE for this CVE

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing, static analysis, and dynamic memory checkers) directly finds expired-pointer dereferences before deployment.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure engineering principles applied during design and implementation can mandate memory-safe allocation, ownership, and deallocation patterns that structurally avoid use of expired pointers.

SC-39 Process Isolation partial match

Process isolation confines the effects of a use-after-free within a single address space, reducing cross-process impact.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the blast radius when an expired pointer is dereferenced, even though they do not stop the coding flaw itself.

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-development practices directly prevent coding errors such as use-after-free while one CWE contributes only modestly to the full control.

ID.AM-08 partial match
prevents

Lifecycle management includes secure development and maintenance phases that reduce memory-safety defects.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free flaws via scanning or analysis.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching and replacement can eliminate known instances of expired-pointer bugs.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect use-after-free issues, but removing this weakness alone does not fulfill the testing control.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle practices can include pointer lifetime and memory-management rules that reduce expired-pointer dereferences.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements may mandate safe memory handling, but eliminating this single weakness does not satisfy the broader requirement.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles can prescribe memory-safety patterns, yet fixing only this weakness does not achieve the control.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly address pointer lifetime and deallocation discipline, substantially mitigating expired-pointer dereference.

A.8.32 Change management partial match
prevents

Change-management processes can require re-validation of memory safety after modifications, indirectly reducing the weakness.

References