CVE-2025-14762VulnerabilityPublished 17 Dec 2025

CVE-2025-14762: AWS SDK for Ruby · Weak Cryptography

Affects AWS SDK for RubySource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium : upgrade to 1.208.0 when convenient.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 10% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 1.208.0

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

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

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: 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: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
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: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 17 Dec 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 2026-10-25.

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 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

Upgrade aws-sdk-s3 to 1.208.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
RubyGemsaws-sdk-s3`pkg:gem/aws-sdk-s3`Other threats	Affected <1.208.0	Fixed in 1.208.0

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately upgrade the AWS SDK for Ruby to version 1.208.0 or later to incorporate the cryptographic key commitment fix. Additionally, organizations should audit S3 bucket permissions to ensure that write access is strictly limited to trusted entities, minimizing the risk of unauthorized key manipulation. Implement monitoring and alerting on S3 bucket write operations, especially those involving instruction files or encryption metadata, to detect suspicious activity promptly. Review and enforce strict IAM policies following the principle of least privilege to reduce the attack surface. Where feasible, consider using alternative encryption key storage methods that do not rely on instruction files or enhance encryption workflows with additional integrity checks. Conduct regular integrity verification of encrypted data and keys to detect tampering early. Finally, incorporate this vulnerability into incident response plans and ensure that development and security teams are aware of the risks associated with cryptographic key management in cloud SDKs.

Description

CVE-2025-14762 is a medium-severity vulnerability in the AWS SDK for Ruby involving the use of a broken or risky cryptographic algorithm. The issue arises from missing cryptographic key commitment when encrypted data keys (EDKs) are stored in an "instruction file" rather than S3 metadata. This flaw allows a user with write access to an S3 bucket to introduce a malicious EDK that decrypts to different plaintext, potentially compromising data integrity. Exploitation requires network access, low privileges, and no user interaction, but has a high impact on integrity without affecting confidentiality or availability. AWS has addressed this vulnerability in SDK version 1.208.0 and later. European organizations using the AWS SDK for Ruby, especially those heavily reliant on S3 for encrypted data storage, should prioritize upgrading to mitigate risks. Countries with significant cloud adoption and AWS usage, such as Germany, the UK, France, and the Netherlands, are most likely to be affected. The vulnerability does not appear to be exploited in the wild yet, but the risk of data tampering warrants prompt remediation.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability primarily threatens data integrity in cloud environments using AWS SDK for Ruby with S3 buckets configured to store encrypted data keys in instruction files. An attacker with write access to the S3 bucket could manipulate encrypted data keys to cause decryption to yield altered plaintext, potentially leading to corrupted data, unauthorized data modification, or application logic errors. This could affect industries with stringent data integrity requirements such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure. Although confidentiality and availability are not directly impacted, the integrity breach could result in compliance violations under GDPR and other data protection regulations, leading to legal and reputational consequences. Organizations relying on automated processes for data encryption and decryption are particularly vulnerable, as the manipulation may go unnoticed until data corruption or operational failures occur. The medium severity rating suggests that while exploitation is not trivial, the potential damage to data trustworthiness is significant, warranting immediate attention.

Summary

CVE-2025-14762 is a cryptographic vulnerability classified under CWE-327, affecting the AWS SDK for Ruby. The core issue is the absence of cryptographic key commitment when encrypted data keys (EDKs) are stored in an "instruction file" instead of the default S3 metadata record. Key commitment is a cryptographic technique that binds the encrypted key to the ciphertext, ensuring that any tampering with the key or ciphertext is detectable. Without this binding, an attacker with write access to the S3 bucket can replace the EDK with a malicious one that decrypts to different plaintext than originally intended. This undermines data integrity, allowing undetected data manipulation. The vulnerability requires an attacker to have write permissions on the S3 bucket, which is a moderate privilege level, and can be exploited remotely without user interaction. The CVSS v3.1 score is 5.3 (medium), reflecting the moderate complexity and impact. AWS has released a fix in SDK version 1.208.0, which introduces proper cryptographic key commitment to prevent this attack vector. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, but the vulnerability poses a significant risk to applications relying on the AWS SDK for Ruby for encryption and decryption operations involving S3-stored data.

CWE-327Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighOWASP Top 10 A04:2025: Cryptographic Failures (opens in a new tab)
The product uses a broken or risky cryptographic algorithm or protocol.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
When there is a need to store or transmit sensitive data, use strong, up-to-date cryptographic algorithms to encrypt that data. Select a well-vetted algorithm that is currently considered to be strong by experts in the field, and use well-tested implementations.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that the design allows one cryptographic algorithm to be replaced with another in the next generation or version. Where possible, use wrappers to make the interfaces uniform. This will make it easier to upgrade to stronger algorithms.
Architecture and Design
Carefully manage and protect cryptographic keys (see CWE-320). If the keys can be guessed or stolen, then the strength of the cryptography itself is irrelevant.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Cryptographic Storage (opens in a new tab)
Key Management (opens in a new tab)
Transport Layer Protection (opens in a new tab)
User Privacy Protection (opens in a new tab)
Password Storage (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.7 (opens in a new tab)
V2.9.3 (opens in a new tab)
V6.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Encryption Brute Forcing (opens in a new tab)
Creating a Rogue Certification Authority Certificate (opens in a new tab)
Signature Spoof (opens in a new tab)
Signature Spoofing by Improper Validation (opens in a new tab)
Cryptanalysis of Cellular Encryption (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 24 Dec 2025, 22:00 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-327

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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