CVE-2025-1403: IBM Qiskit SDK · Deserialization of Untrusted Data
Affects IBM Qiskit SDKSource CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.6 High.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 53% 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:C/C:N/I:N/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 21 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 2026-10-26.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| IBM Qiskit SDK | Affected
| Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
1. Immediate mitigation involves upgrading the Qiskit SDK to a version beyond 1.2.4 once IBM releases a patched version addressing CVE-2025-1403. Until a patch is available, organizations should avoid processing untrusted or unauthenticated QPY files, especially those received from external or unverified sources. 2. Implement strict input validation and sandboxing for any components that deserialize QPY files to contain potential crashes and prevent system-wide impact. 3. Employ network-level controls such as firewalls and intrusion detection/prevention systems to monitor and block suspicious traffic that could deliver malicious QPY files. 4. For environments where Qiskit is exposed via APIs or web services, enforce authentication and authorization to restrict access to trusted users only, reducing the risk of remote exploitation. 5. Establish monitoring and alerting for application crashes or abnormal behavior in systems running Qiskit to enable rapid detection and response to potential exploitation attempts. 6. Educate developers and users of Qiskit within the organization about the risks of deserializing untrusted data and promote secure coding and handling practices for quantum computing workflows.
Description
Qiskit SDK 0.45.0 through 1.2.4 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service using a maliciously crafted QPY file containing a malformed symengine serialization stream which can cause a segfault within the symengine library.