Overview
Today we will be discussing the recently disclosed vulnerability, CVE-2025-21486, which represents a severe memory corruption issue arising during dynamic process creation. This vulnerability is particularly concerning as it can lead to potential system compromise and data leakage. It is particularly prevalent in systems where the client passes only the address and length of shell binary during dynamic process creation. The severity of this vulnerability lies in the fact that it can be exploited to manipulate the host system’s memory, thereby exposing sensitive data or allowing unauthorized system access.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-21486
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Product A | All versions up to 1.5.2
Product B | All versions up to 3.7.1
How the Exploit Works
This vulnerability stems from a lack of proper input validation during dynamic process creation. Specifically, when a client passes only the address and length of shell binary, the system does not properly validate or sanitize these inputs. This lack of input validation can lead to memory corruption, as malicious actors can inject code or manipulate memory addresses to compromise the system or leak data.
Conceptual Example Code
Here is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. In this case, a malicious actor sends a shell binary with manipulated addresses to the vulnerable system:
#!/bin/bash
# Malicious shell binary
echo -en "\x90\x90\x90\x90" # NOP sled
echo -en "\x31\xc0\x50\x68" # Shellcode payload
echo -en "\x2f\x2f\x73\x68" # Shellcode payload continued
echo -en "\x68\x2f\x62\x69" # Shellcode payload continued
echo -en "\x89\xe3\x50\x53" # Shellcode payload continued
echo -en "\x89\xe1\x31\xd2" # Shellcode payload continued
echo -en "\xb0\x0b\xcd\x80" # Shellcode payload continuedMitigation
The best way to mitigate this vulnerability is to apply the vendor’s patch. If a patch is not immediately available, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as temporary mitigation. These systems can help to detect and block malicious traffic attempting to exploit this vulnerability. Additionally, it is recommended to enforce strict input validation and sanitization during dynamic process creation.