CVE-2025-54878: nasa cryptolib Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-54878 is a high (CVSS 8.6) Heap-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in nasa cryptolib. EPSS estimates a 0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 31.5% of scored vulnerabilities. 1 public exploit is recorded.

Timeline

1. 11-08-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 11-08-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

CryptoLib provides a software-only solution using the CCSDS Space Data Link Security Protocol - Extended Procedures (SDLS-EP) to secure communications between a spacecraft running the core Flight System (cFS) and a ground station. A heap buffer overflow vulnerability exists in NASA CryptoLib version 1.4.0 and prior in the IV setup logic for telecommand frames. The problem arises from missing bounds checks when copying the Initialization Vector (IV) into a freshly allocated buffer. An attacker can supply a crafted TC frame that causes the library to write one byte past the end of the heap buffer, leading to heap corruption and undefined behaviour. An attacker supplying a malformed telecommand frame can corrupt heap memory. This leads to undefined behaviour, which could manifest itself as a crash (denial of service) or more severe exploitation. This issue has been patched in version 1.4.0.

• CWE-122Heap-based Buffer OverflowA heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc().