VulnerabilityPublished 18 Feb 2025Updated 3 Nov 2025

CVE-2024-57257: denx U-Boot · Uncontrolled Recursion

Affects denx U-BootSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 2.0 Low.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

2.0Low

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

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 24% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

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

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

Attack Vector: Physical: The attack requires the attacker to physically touch or manipulate the vulnerable component. Physical interaction may be brief or persistent.
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
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: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 18 Feb 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
denx U-Boot	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-57257, European organizations should: 1) Monitor for and apply updates to U-Boot, specifically upgrading to version 2025.01-rc1 or later once officially released, as this version contains the fix for the uncontrolled recursion issue. 2) Implement strict validation and integrity checks on squashfs filesystem images before deployment to embedded devices, ensuring they do not contain maliciously crafted deep symlink nesting. 3) Restrict physical and local access to devices running U-Boot to prevent unauthorized firmware or filesystem modifications. 4) Incorporate secure boot mechanisms and firmware signing to prevent loading of unauthorized or tampered boot images. 5) Conduct regular security audits of embedded device firmware and bootloader configurations to detect anomalies. 6) Collaborate with device vendors and supply chain partners to ensure patched bootloader versions are integrated into device firmware. 7) Develop incident response plans that include recovery procedures for embedded device failures caused by bootloader issues. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on supply chain security, firmware validation, and physical access controls tailored to embedded environments common in Europe.

Description

A stack consumption issue in sqfs_size in Das U-Boot before 2025.01-rc1 occurs via a crafted squashfs filesystem with deep symlink nesting.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2024-57257 is a potential denial of service during device boot due to stack exhaustion caused by maliciously crafted squashfs images. This could disrupt operations in environments relying on embedded devices or industrial control systems that use U-Boot as their bootloader. While the vulnerability does not allow data theft or unauthorized code execution, availability interruptions could affect critical infrastructure, manufacturing lines, or IoT deployments. The requirement for local or physical access to supply the malicious filesystem limits remote exploitation risks, but insider threats or supply chain attacks could leverage this vulnerability. Organizations with extensive embedded device fleets, such as automotive manufacturers, telecommunications providers, and industrial automation companies, may face operational disruptions if devices are not updated. However, the low CVSS score and absence of known exploits reduce the immediate threat level. Still, failure to address this vulnerability could increase risk exposure in environments where device uptime is critical.

CWE-674Uncontrolled Recursion (opens in a new tab)
Class weakness
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
Implementation
Ensure that an end condition will be reached under all logic conditions. The end condition may include checking against the depth of recursion and exiting with an error if the recursion goes too deep. The complexity of the end condition contributes to the effectiveness of this action.
Implementation
Increase the stack size.
Attack patterns
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Nov 2025, 20:05 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-674

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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