{"id":63987,"date":"2025-08-11T21:51:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:51:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-08T02:33:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:33:31","slug":"cve-2025-52496-race-condition-in-mbed-tls-library-leads-to-potential-aes-key-extraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52496-race-condition-in-mbed-tls-library-leads-to-potential-aes-key-extraction\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-52496: Race Condition in Mbed TLS Library Leads to Potential AES Key Extraction<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-52496 is a serious security flaw found in the Mbed TLS library before the release of version 3.6.4. This vulnerability, if exploited, can lead to a significant compromise of system security through the extraction of AES keys from multithreaded programs. This could potentially allow an attacker to perform a GCM forgery, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49691-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-windows-media-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72093\">leading to data leakage or even complete system<\/a> compromise.<br \/>\nThe reason why this vulnerability matters is due to the widespread use of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-48903-permission-bypass-vulnerability-in-media-library-module\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72882\">Mbed TLS<\/a> library in numerous applications. Any application utilizing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55010-arbitrary-php-object-instantiation-in-kanboard-prior-to-version-1-2-47\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"78072\">versions of this library prior<\/a> to 3.6.4 is potentially at risk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-52496<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS: 7.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: None<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27055-memory-corruption-leads-to-potential-system-compromise-during-image-encoding\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74170\">System compromise and potential<\/a> data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2972101229\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Mbed TLS | Before 3.6.4<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The exploit works by taking advantage of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43275-critical-race-condition-vulnerability-in-macos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"71624\">race condition<\/a> in the AESNI detection functionality of the Mbed TLS library. If certain compiler optimizations occur, an attacker can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-25180-underprivileged-software-manipulates-gpu-system-calls-for-unauthorized-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88768\">manipulate the concurrent execution of threads to trick the system<\/a> into revealing the AES key. This key can then be used to decrypt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-55443-android-telpo-mdm-exposes-sensitive-data-in-plaintext\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"89325\">sensitive data<\/a> or perform a GCM forgery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4227936944\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>While the exact code will vary based on the specific implementation of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54594-critical-vulnerability-in-react-native-bottom-tabs-library-allows-for-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"82250\">Mbed TLS<\/a> library, a conceptual example may look something like this:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\">#include &quot;mbedtls\/aes.h&quot;\nint main() {\nmbedtls_aes_context aes;\nunsigned char key[16];\nmbedtls_aes_init(&amp;aes);\nmbedtls_aes_setkey_enc(&amp;aes, key, 128);\n\/\/ At this point, due to the vulnerability,\n\/\/ another thread could potentially extract the AES key\n\/\/ from the aes context while it&#039;s being used for encryption.\n\/\/ ... Rest of the code ...\nreturn 0;\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p><strong>Mitigation Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The recommended mitigation for this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-43588-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-substance3d-sampler-versions-5-0-and-earlier\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"73524\">vulnerability<\/a> is to update the Mbed TLS library to version 3.6.4 or later, where the vulnerability has been patched. If this is not immediately feasible, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. However, these are not permanent solutions and the library should be updated as soon as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54742-data-deserialization-vulnerability-in-wpevently-leading-to-possible-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"86519\">possible to fully secure your system<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-52496 is a serious security flaw found in the Mbed TLS library before the release of version 3.6.4. This vulnerability, if exploited, can lead to a significant compromise of system security through the extraction of AES keys from multithreaded programs. This could potentially allow an attacker to perform a GCM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-63987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63987"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82161,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63987\/revisions\/82161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63987"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=63987"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=63987"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=63987"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=63987"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=63987"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=63987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}