Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2025-14512: GNOME GLib heap buffer overflow in GIO escape_byte_string

CVE-2025-14512 · Severity: medium · CVSS 6.5 · Published 2025-12-11

Technologies: Gnome Glib, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0. Vendors: Gnome, Red Hat.

Executive brief

A vulnerability has been identified in GLib, a fundamental software library used by many Linux applications and the GNOME desktop environment. An attacker could exploit this flaw by providing specially crafted file or filesystem information, potentially causing applications to crash or behave unexpectedly. This could lead to a denial-of-service, impacting the availability of affected systems and services.

Technical details

An integer overflow vulnerability (CWE-190) exists in the escape_byte_string() function within GLib's GIO (GLib Input/Output) library. The flaw is triggered when the library processes malicious file or remote filesystem attribute values. This overflow can lead to a heap-based buffer overflow, allowing an attacker to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) via application crashes. While the attack vector is listed as network-based, it typically requires some level of user interaction, such as a user viewing a malicious file or connecting to a compromised remote filesystem. Patches have been released by Red Hat for various Enterprise Linux versions, and GNOME has addressed the issue in GLib versions 2.86.3 and later.

Affected products

  • GNOME glib2 up to (excluding) 2.86.3
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0
  • Red Hat OpenShift 4.0

Timeline

  • 2025-12-11: disclosed: Initial disclosure by Red Hat
  • 2025-12-11: advisory: NVD published date
  • 2026-05-11: patched: Red Hat released security updates (RHSA-2026:15953, RHSA-2026:15969, RHSA-2026:15971)

References

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