Description
A critical vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-1744, has been discovered in the radareorg radare2 component. This vulnerability pertains to an Out-of-bounds Write issue, potentially resulting in heap-based buffer over-read or buffer overflow. The vulnerability affects radare2 versions prior to 5.9.9.
Affected Product(s)
The affected products and versions include:
- radareorg radare2: Before version 5.9.9
- Debian 13 (trixie): radare2 package versions up to 5.9.8+dfsg-2
- Debian sid (unstable): radare2 package versions up to 5.9.8+dfsg-2
Technical Details
CVE-2025-1744 is a critical buffer management weakness in radare2, an open-source framework widely used for reverse engineering and analyzing binaries.
The vulnerability stems from Out-of-bounds Write operations. This specific class of vulnerability, categorized as CWE-787 by MITRE, can lead to heap-based buffer over-read or buffer overflow under certain circumstances. Radare2 is known for its robust suite of tools to analyze, debug, and exploit software binaries. Due to its broad adoption among security researchers, penetration testers, and enthusiasts, any security weakness in this tool can have a far-reaching impact across the community.
An Out-of-bounds Write occurs when a program writes data outside the boundaries of allocated memory. This unintended behavior can corrupt data, trigger unexpected crashes, or even allow threat actors to execute arbitrary code on the compromised system.
In the context of radare2, this vulnerability arises when certain processes attempt to write into memory beyond pre-allocated buffer sizes. This vulnerability was observed when certain inputs, such as crafted binary files, were processed. Earlier versions of radare2 (prior to 5.9.9) failed to implement adequate validation mechanisms for boundary checks, which is the root cause of the problem. The affected versions listed include Debian’s distribution packages, where builds from both Debian 13 (trixie) and Debian sid (unstable) utilized vulnerable code.
Although there are no concrete reports of this vulnerability being weaponized in active campaigns, the high CVSSv4 score of 10.0 underscores the criticality and expected severity should an exploit become available. Notably, adversary groups often prioritize such vulnerabilities for use in initial access tactics or as part of chained exploits. Such attacks can enable threat actors to compromise sensitive systems, access private data, and create escalated footholds.
Researchers in the GitHub community have documented this vulnerability in relevant issue trackers and pull requests, prompting a resolution in later versions. Specifically, GitHub pull request #23969 provides deeper insights into the patching process indicating the fixes uphold stricter boundary checks and enhance memory allocation/deallocation routines.
Further details about this vulnerability and associated remediation efforts can also be sourced from platforms like the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and the Debian Security Tracker.
For further technical clarification, references like the CVE entry from MITRE (CVE-2025-1744) and the specific Debian vulnerability tracker (Debian Security Tracker) provide extended discussions of the risks and exposure.
Weakness
The primary weakness associated with CVE-2025-1744 is based on CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write. This weakness allows data to be written outside the designated boundaries of allocated memory buffers. Such behavior can corrupt adjacent memory, destabilize the system, and potentially lead to remote code execution if successfully exploited. In the case of radare2, failure to implement strict memory allocation and validation before processing input has contributed to this technical vulnerability.
Impact Assessment
If exploited, CVE-2025-1744 could allow an attacker to perform unauthorized actions on an affected system. The most likely impact includes heap corruption, application crashes, and in the worst-case scenario, arbitrary code execution. An attacker leveraging this vulnerability could execute malicious commands or introduce nefarious payloads into the system, resulting in the compromise of system integrity, unauthorized access to sensitive data, and potential pivoting into broader networks.
Active Exploitation
As of now, no active exploit targeting CVE-2025-1744 has been observed in the wild. However, given the widespread use of radare2 by researchers and organizations, the potential for interest by sophisticated adversaries is high. Patching this vulnerability promptly is essential to mitigate risks of future exploitation.
Ransomware Association
There is no immediate evidence suggesting direct use of CVE-2025-1744 in ransomware campaigns. However, due to its critical nature and its utility for exploitation, it could be leveraged as an entry point by ransomware operators in their kill chain. Exploiting radare2 vulnerabilities could enable the execution of initial access strategies used in delivering ransomware payloads or other malicious binaries.
Mitigation and Resolution
The radareorg development team has released an updated version of radare2 (version 5.9.9) that resolves the Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability. Users and administrators are strongly advised to update to this version immediately. Debian distributions affected by this issue should also monitor updates and install equivalent patches released through their package management system. Going forward, integrating additional automated boundary checks and enabling runtime protections can mitigate similar vulnerabilities.
Recommendations
- We strongly recommend that all users of radare2 update to version 5.9.9 or later as soon as possible.
- For Debian users, update the radare2 package via package managers to the latest version once updates are released. Use the command `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade` to fetch updated software.
- Tighten the validation of inputs and monitor the logs generated by radare2 for any unexpected activities pre- and post-update.
- Configure your system to apply security updates automatically if not already enabled.
- Audit and validate the provenance of all binaries used in any reverse-engineering or debugging workflow to avoid processing maliciously crafted inputs.
- Monitor security advisories from radareorg as well as Debianโs security tracker for immediate updates and patches.
- Restrict access to radare2 software to trusted users only, minimizing risks of intentional misuse within the organization.
- Employ runtime protection mechanisms like Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) to make exploitation more challenging.
Referencesย