Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-68973

Memory Safety in Gnupg ≤ 2.4.8

Memory Safety
Published
28 December 2025
Modified
14 January 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0015 4th percentile
Risk Priority 53 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2025-68973 is a high-severity Multiple Operations on Resource in Single-Operation Context (CWE-675) vulnerability in Gnupg Gnupg. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

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-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In GnuPG before 2.4.9, armor_filter in g10/armor.c has two increments of an index variable where one is intended, leading to an out-of-bounds write for crafted input. (For ExtendedLTS, 2.2.51 and later are fixed versions.)

CWE(s)
CWE-675CWE-787

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 →
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 →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
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 →
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
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-2023-24982Shared CWE-787
CVE-2023-32888Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-42815Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-55413Shared CWE-787
CVE-2018-1160Shared CWE-787
CVE-2022-41073Shared CWE-787
CVE-2023-40799Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-20501Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-4976Shared CWE-787
CVE-2024-23709Shared CWE-787

Affected Assets

gnupg
gnupg
≤ 2.4.8

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation can discover duplicate operations on the same resource during code or runtime analysis.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring documented development standards and tools can enforce single-operation resource handling patterns in code.

SA-3 System Development Life Cycle partial match

A secure SDLC that incorporates security principles reduces the chance of introducing duplicate resource operations.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Input validation can structurally reject or sanitize data that would otherwise trigger an out-of-bounds write.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the exploitability and blast radius of a successful out-of-bounds write.

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 duplicate resource operations in code while the control addresses broader development activities.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover out-of-bounds write flaws so they can be remediated.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.

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 duplicate operations on resources before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle practices can catch duplicate resource operations during design and code review.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can mandate single-operation semantics for critical resources.

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

Secure architecture principles discourage redundant operations on the same resource.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly address avoiding multiple operations on a resource in a single-operation context.

A.8.32 Change management partial match
degrades

Change management processes can prevent introduction of duplicate resource operations during updates.

References