CVE-2025-23261 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting NVIDIA's NVOS operating system, specifically versions 25.02.21xx, 25.02.22xx, and 25.02.23xx. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-532, which involves the insertion of sensitive information into log files. In this case, hashed user passwords are not properly suppressed and are logged in plaintext or insufficiently protected form within system logs. This exposure can potentially allow unauthorized users with access to these logs to retrieve hashed passwords. Although the passwords are hashed, the disclosure still poses a risk because attackers could attempt offline brute-force or dictionary attacks against the hashes to recover the original passwords. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.5 (medium severity), with the vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N indicating that the attack requires local access with low privileges and no user interaction, and the impact is primarily on confidentiality with high impact, but no impact on integrity or availability. No known exploits are currently in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of sensitive authentication data in logs, which is a common security best practice violation. Organizations using NVIDIA NVOS in their network infrastructure could inadvertently expose sensitive credential information to internal threat actors or attackers who gain local access, increasing the risk of credential compromise and lateral movement within the network.

For European organizations, the exposure of hashed user passwords in NVOS logs could lead to significant confidentiality breaches, especially in environments where NVOS is used to manage critical network infrastructure or data center operations. If an attacker gains local access to the system or can access log files through misconfigurations or insider threats, they could extract password hashes and attempt offline cracking. This could result in unauthorized access to administrative accounts or other privileged users, potentially enabling further compromise of network devices or services. Given the medium severity and local access requirement, the threat is more pronounced in organizations with less stringent internal access controls or where NVOS devices are deployed in sensitive environments. The lack of impact on integrity and availability means the vulnerability does not directly enable system manipulation or denial of service, but the confidentiality breach could facilitate subsequent attacks. European organizations with compliance obligations under GDPR must also consider the risk of exposing user credential data, which could lead to regulatory penalties if not properly managed.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should first inventory all NVOS devices and verify if they run affected versions (25.02.21xx, 25.02.22xx, 25.02.23xx). Until patches are available, organizations should restrict local access to NVOS systems to trusted administrators only and implement strict access controls on log files to prevent unauthorized reading. Monitoring and auditing access to logs should be enhanced to detect any unusual access patterns. Organizations should also consider implementing additional encryption or secure logging mechanisms if supported by NVOS to protect sensitive information in logs. Password policies should enforce strong, complex passwords to reduce the risk of successful offline cracking of exposed hashes. Network segmentation can limit the exposure of NVOS devices and logs to only necessary personnel. Finally, organizations should stay alert for NVIDIA security advisories and apply patches promptly once released. If possible, disable or limit verbose logging of authentication events until the issue is resolved.