CVE-2025-21468: Memory Corruption Vulnerability Leading to Potential System Compromise

Overview

CVE-2025-21468 is a notable vulnerability that lies in the memory buffer handling by firmware (FW) and its respective driver. This vulnerability is of significant concern as it affects a wide range of systems, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. The severity of the issue lies in the fact that it arises from a common operation – reading response from the firmware. It is a classic example of an overlooked bug that exploits the disparity between firmware and driver functionalities.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-21468
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

[Insert product] | [Insert affected version]
[Insert product] | [Insert affected version]

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of a memory corruption bug that occurs when the firmware changes the buffer size while the driver is using this size to write a null character at the end of the buffer. The driver, unaware of the change in buffer size, attempts to write beyond the allocated buffer, resulting in memory corruption.

Conceptual Example Code

This is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. In this case, the attacker uses a malicious firmware update that changes the buffer size when it is being used by the driver. Here is a pseudocode representation:

# Attacker's malicious firmware update
def malicious_fw_update():
# Change buffer size while it's being used by the driver
BUFFER_SIZE = NEW_SIZE
# Driver's function to write null character at the end of the buffer
def driver_write(buffer):
try:
buffer[BUFFER_SIZE] = '\0'
except BufferOverflowError:
# Handle error
pass

In this example, `driver_write` function will try to write a null character at the end of the buffer. However, if the `malicious_fw_update` function changes `BUFFER_SIZE` while `driver_write` is executing, a buffer overflow error will occur, corrupting memory and possibly leading to a system compromise.