CVE-2025-10458 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting the Zephyr real-time operating system (RTOS), an open-source project widely used in embedded systems and IoT devices. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of length parameter inconsistencies within the system. Specifically, parameters passed to internal operations are not properly validated or sanitized, which can lead to inconsistent or unexpected behavior during processing. This lack of validation can cause memory corruption, buffer overflows, or other undefined behaviors that impact the integrity and availability of the system. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.6 reflects a high severity, with an attack vector requiring adjacent network access (AV:A), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), and no user interaction (UI:N). The scope is unchanged (S:U), and the impact affects confidentiality (C:L), integrity (I:L), and availability (A:H), indicating that while confidentiality and integrity impacts are limited, availability can be severely affected, potentially causing system crashes or denial of service. Since all versions of Zephyr are affected, this vulnerability poses a broad risk to any device or system running this RTOS. Given Zephyr's extensive use in embedded devices across industries such as automotive, industrial control, consumer electronics, and telecommunications, exploitation could disrupt critical operations or cause device failures. No known exploits are currently in the wild, but the vulnerability's characteristics make it a candidate for targeted attacks in environments where Zephyr is deployed.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-10458 can be significant, especially for sectors relying on embedded systems and IoT devices running Zephyr RTOS. Industrial automation and manufacturing companies using Zephyr-based controllers could face operational disruptions due to system crashes or denial of service, potentially halting production lines and causing financial losses. The telecommunications sector, which may deploy Zephyr in network equipment or IoT gateways, could experience degraded service availability, impacting customer experience and critical communications. Automotive manufacturers and suppliers in Europe that integrate Zephyr in vehicle subsystems might encounter safety risks or recalls if the vulnerability is exploited. Additionally, smart city infrastructure and healthcare devices using Zephyr could be compromised, affecting public safety and health services. The limited confidentiality and integrity impact reduces the risk of data breaches but does not eliminate the threat of service outages or device malfunctions. The absence of required privileges and user interaction means attackers with adjacent network access, such as within the same local network or via compromised devices, could exploit this vulnerability, increasing the risk in interconnected environments.

To mitigate CVE-2025-10458 effectively, European organizations should prioritize the following actions: 1) Immediate patching: Monitor Zephyr project updates and apply security patches as soon as they are released to address the improper parameter validation. 2) Network segmentation: Restrict access to devices running Zephyr RTOS by segmenting networks and limiting adjacent network access to trusted entities only, reducing the attack surface. 3) Input validation hardening: Where possible, implement additional input validation and sanitization at the application or middleware layers interfacing with Zephyr components to catch malformed parameters before they reach vulnerable code paths. 4) Device inventory and risk assessment: Identify all devices running Zephyr within the organization, assess their exposure to adjacent network access, and prioritize remediation based on criticality. 5) Monitoring and anomaly detection: Deploy monitoring solutions to detect unusual behavior or crashes in Zephyr-based devices that could indicate exploitation attempts. 6) Vendor engagement: Work with device and system vendors to ensure timely updates and support for affected products. 7) Incident response preparedness: Develop and test incident response plans specific to embedded device compromise or denial of service scenarios to minimize downtime and impact.