Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-65566 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linuxfoundation Upf. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
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; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SC-7 (Boundary Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-204335
Vulnerability Data
A denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the omec-project UPF (pfcpiface component) in version upf-epc-pfcpiface:2.1.3-dev. When the UPF receives a PFCP Session Report Response that is missing the mandatory Cause Information Element, the session report handler dereferences a nil pointer instead of…
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rejecting the malformed message. This triggers a panic and terminates the UPF process. An attacker who can send PFCP Session Report Response messages to the UPF's N4/PFCP endpoint can exploit this flaw to repeatedly crash the UPF and disrupt user-plane services.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The vulnerability allows an attacker to send malformed PFCP Session Report Response messages to the UPF's N4/PFCP endpoint, causing a nil pointer dereference that crashes the process. This directly maps to T1499.004 (Endpoint Denial of Service: Application or System Exploitation), where an adversary exploits a software flaw to exhaust or terminate application resources.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires validation of PFCP protocol messages and mandatory IEs before processing, preventing the nil dereference on a missing Cause IE.
Enforces boundary protection and traffic filtering on the N4/PFCP endpoint so only authorized, well-formed messages from trusted peers reach the pfcpiface handler.
Enables monitoring of PFCP traffic anomalies and process crashes/panics on the UPF, allowing rapid detection of repeated exploitation attempts.
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 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.
Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.
Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.
Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.
Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.
Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.