CVE-2025-67269
Description
A flaw was found in gpsd. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted NAVCOM packet. When parsing the packet, an error in calculating the payload length can cause the system to attempt to process an extremely large amount of data. This leads to excessive CPU utilization, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) condition where the system becomes unresponsive.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated Important for Red Hat because gpsd is susceptible to a remote denial-of-service condition triggered through malformed NAVCOM packets processed from untrusted input sources. A specially crafted packet can induce an unsigned integer underflow during packet length calculation in the NAVCOM parsing state machine, resulting in an excessively large length value and causing the parser to enter a non-terminating read state. Although the flaw does not directly lead to memory corruption, its severity is elevated because it affects a core parsing path that continuously processes streaming input and can be exploited with a single malformed packet, without authentication or sustained attacker interaction. The resulting sustained 100% CPU utilization renders the gpsd service unresponsive to all dependent clients, impacting system functionality wherever gpsd is exposed to network-based inputs or externally influenced serial devices.
Mitigation
No mitigation is currently available that meets Red Hat Product Security’s standards for usability, deployment, applicability, or stability.
Exposure can be reduced by restricting gpsd from listening on network sockets, limiting input sources to trusted serial devices only, and ensuring the service is not accessible from untrusted networks. Deployments that do not require NAVCOM packet support should consider disabling or filtering such input where possible to further minimize risk.
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.
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