CVE-2025-45006: Critical Vulnerability in Open-Source RISC-V Processor

Overview

A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the Open-Source RISC-V Processor that can potentially lead to system compromise and data leakage. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-45006, involves the improper retention of the mstatus.SUM bit in commit f517abb. This violation of privileged spec constraints may enable an attacker to access the physical memory of the system, thus leading to a serious security breach. Given the severity of this vulnerability, it is imperative for system administrators and cybersecurity professionals to understand the depth and breadth of this issue and take necessary steps to mitigate it.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-45006
Severity: Critical (CVSS score 9.1)
Attack Vector: Physical memory access
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Open-Source RISC-V Processor | Commit f517abb

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of the improper retention of the mstatus.SUM bit in the Open-Source RISC-V Processor. Due to this flaw, an attacker can leverage this to violate privileged spec constraints and gain unauthorized access to the physical memory of the system. This can potentially lead to a full system compromise and data leakage if the attacker manages to exploit this flaw successfully.

Conceptual Example Code

While an actual exploit code would be highly specific and complex, the general concept would be as follows:

# Exploit pseudo-code
# Assuming attacker has gained high privilege access
# Access the mstatus register
mstatus = read_register('mstatus')
# Set the SUM bit to non-zero
mstatus['SUM'] = 1
# Write back to the mstatus register
write_register('mstatus', mstatus)
# Now the attacker can potentially access physical memory violating spec constraints.

Note: This is a highly simplified example and the actual exploit would be far more complex and specific, depending on the exact architecture and configuration of the target system.

Mitigation Guidance

The recommended mitigation for this vulnerability is to apply the vendor-supplied patch as soon as it becomes available. Until then, as a temporary mitigation, it is suggested to use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to monitor and block any potential exploit attempts. Administrators should also monitor system logs for any unusual activity and ensure all systems are running the latest security updates.