CVE-2025-4948
Description
A flaw was found in the soup_multipart_new_from_message() function of the libsoup HTTP library, which is commonly used by GNOME and other applications to handle web communications. The issue occurs when the library processes specially crafted multipart messages. Due to improper validation, an internal calculation can go wrong, leading to an integer underflow. This can cause the program to access invalid memory and crash. As a result, any application or server using libsoup could be forced to exit unexpectedly, creating a denial-of-service (DoS) risk.
Statement
The Red Hat Product Security team has assessed the severity of this vulnerability as High, given that it can be remotely triggered without authentication or user interaction. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to crash services or applications relying on libsoup for HTTP multipart message processing. The vulnerability’s root cause is a lack of proper bounds checking that results in an integer underflow and subsequent denial-of-service.
Mitigation
To mitigate this issue, Red Hat recommends avoiding the use of libsoup with untrusted or unauthenticated multipart HTTP message sources until updated packages are available. Administrators can deploy application-level filters or HTTP proxies that reject malformed multipart requests. It is strongly advised to apply vendor-supplied patches as soon as they are released to address this integer underflow vulnerability and restore the stability of affected services.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.5 | N/A | 7.5 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | N/A | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | N/A | None |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Instability
This weakness will generally lead to undefined behavior and therefore crashes. In the case of overflows involving loop index variables, the likelihood of infinite loops is also high.
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Memory
If the value in question is important to data (as opposed to flow), simple data corruption has occurred. Also, if the wrap around results in other conditions such as buffer overflows, further memory corruption may occur.
Confidentiality,Availability,Access Control
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Bypass Protection Mechanism
This weakness can sometimes trigger buffer overflows which can be used to execute arbitrary code. This is usually outside the scope of a program's implicit security policy.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank fouzhe and zkbytes for reporting this issue.
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