Overview
In this blog post, we delve into an intricate vulnerability that has surfaced in iperf, a widely used networking tool for measuring bandwidth performance. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-54351, can lead to potential system compromise or data leakage, highlighting the need for immediate attention and mitigation. Given the pervasiveness of iperf in network performance testing, the implications of this vulnerability are far-reaching, affecting organizations across sectors and scales.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-54351
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.9)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
iperf | Before 3.19.1
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability is located in the ‘net.c’ component of iperf. This stems from improper handling of the –skip-rx-copy function, particularly for the MSG_TRUNC in the recv function. When this function is used, a buffer overflow is triggered, creating an opening for attackers to execute arbitrary code on the system. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely over a network without requiring user interaction or any privileges.
Conceptual Example Code
An attacker might exploit the vulnerability by sending a specially crafted payload to the affected iperf version. Conceptually, the malicious shell command might look like this:
iperf --skip-rx-copy -c target.example.com -p 5201 -F <file_with_malicious_payload>In this example, `target.example.com` is the vulnerable system running iperf, `5201` is the port on which iperf is running, and `file_with_malicious_payload` contains the malicious code that triggers the buffer overflow.
The above is just a conceptual example and the exact payload would depend on the attacker’s objective, the specific system configuration, and other factors.
Mitigation and Recommendations
To mitigate this vulnerability, users of the affected iperf versions are strongly advised to apply the vendor-provided patch. In the interim, until the patch is applied, security measures such as Web Application Firewalls (WAF) or Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) can be used for temporary mitigation. It is also recommended to review system logs and network traffic for any suspicious activity that may indicate an attempted or successful exploit of this vulnerability.
As a part of good security hygiene, users should always keep their software up-to-date, apply patches promptly, and monitor systems for unusual behavior.