CVE-2025-5702
Description
A flaw was found in the optimized strcmp glibc function for the Power10 CPU architecture. GNU C library versions from 2.39 onward overwrite two vector registers in a way that can disrupt the control flow of a program.
Statement
This flaw is marked as a Moderate vulnerability rather than an Important one because, while it violates the PowerPC64LE ABI by overwriting non-volatile vector registers (v20 to v31) in the optimized strcmp implementation, its impact is highly context-dependent. The vulnerability does not result in immediate memory corruption, privilege escalation, or remote code execution on its own. It only poses a risk if the overwritten registers were actively holding critical state across the call to strcmp, which is uncommon in typical usage patterns of the function. Moreover, since this issue occurs in an architecture-specific optimization path for Power10 and affects a relatively recent version of glibc (2.39+), its exposure is limited in scope and deployment.
Note that this vulnerability only impacts POWER10 (ppc64le), not POWER9, nor the aarch64, s390x, x86-64 products.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.
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 | 5.6 | N/A | 5.6 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low | N/A | Low |
| Integrity Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability,Other
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (Other); Varies by Context
Most unreleased resource issues result in general software reliability problems, but if an attacker can intentionally trigger a resource leak, the attacker might be able to launch a denial of service attack by depleting the resource pool.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Application Data
When a resource containing sensitive information is not correctly shutdown, it may expose the sensitive data in a subsequent allocation.
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