VulnerabilityPublished 29 May 2025

CVE-2024-54952: MikroTik RouterOS · NULL Pointer Dereference

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 46% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 29 May 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
n/a n/a	Affected =6.40.5	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Network Segmentation: Isolate MikroTik devices and SMB services from untrusted networks, restricting access to trusted hosts only.
Firewall Rules: Implement strict firewall policies to block or limit SMB traffic (typically TCP ports 445 and 139) from untrusted sources, especially over the internet.
Disable SMB Service: If SMB functionality on MikroTik devices is not required, disable the SMB service entirely to eliminate the attack vector.
Monitoring and Detection: Deploy network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) to monitor for anomalous SMB traffic patterns or malformed packets indicative of exploitation attempts.
Vendor Coordination: Engage with MikroTik support channels to obtain information on patches or firmware updates addressing this vulnerability and plan timely deployment once available.
Incident Response Preparedness: Prepare response plans for potential DoS incidents affecting SMB services, including fallback communication methods and rapid device reboot procedures.
Access Control: Limit administrative access to MikroTik devices and ensure strong authentication mechanisms are in place to prevent lateral movement if devices are compromised.

Description

MikroTik RouterOS 6.40.5, the SMB service contains a memory corruption vulnerability. Remote, unauthenticated attackers can exploit this issue by sending specially crafted packets, triggering a null pointer dereference. This leads to a Remote Denial of Service (DoS), rendering the SMB service unavailable.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to network stability and service availability, especially for those relying on MikroTik RouterOS devices for routing and SMB-based file sharing. A successful DoS attack could disrupt internal communications, access to shared files, and potentially impact business continuity. Critical sectors such as telecommunications, government, finance, and utilities that depend on stable network infrastructure could experience operational downtime. Given the unauthenticated nature of the exploit, attackers could launch attacks from external networks without prior access, increasing the threat surface. Although no data breach or integrity compromise is indicated, the loss of availability could indirectly affect productivity, incident response, and service-level agreements. Additionally, the lack of available patches means organizations must rely on mitigation and network-level controls until a fix is released.

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #13OWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Implementation
For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
Requirements
Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V11.1.7 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

github.com/noobone123/RouterOS-issues/blob/main/README.md (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 7 Jul 2025, 22:10 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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