CVE-2025-24302 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting TinyCBOR libraries maintained by Intel prior to version 0.6.1. The issue arises due to uncontrolled recursion within the library's code, which can be triggered by an authenticated user with local access. This uncontrolled recursion may lead to escalation of privilege, allowing a user with limited privileges to gain higher-level access on the affected system. TinyCBOR is a compact binary object representation library commonly used in embedded systems and IoT devices for efficient data serialization and deserialization. The vulnerability requires local access and user interaction, and the attack complexity is high, meaning exploitation is not trivial. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates that the attack vector is local (AV:L), attack complexity is high (AC:H), privileges required are low (PR:L), and user interaction is required (UI:A). The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is high (C:H, I:H, A:H), suggesting that successful exploitation could lead to significant compromise of the system. However, there are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no official patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability does not involve network exposure, limiting its scope to local environments where an attacker has some level of access. This makes it particularly relevant for environments where multiple users share systems or where local access controls are weak. The vulnerability is specific to versions of TinyCBOR before 0.6.1, so upgrading to version 0.6.1 or later is expected to remediate the issue.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-24302 depends largely on the deployment of TinyCBOR libraries within their infrastructure, particularly in embedded systems and IoT devices. Organizations in sectors such as manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, and critical infrastructure that rely on embedded systems using TinyCBOR could face risks of local privilege escalation, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data or control over critical devices. This could disrupt operations, cause data breaches, or enable further lateral movement within networks. Since the vulnerability requires local access and user interaction, insider threats or compromised user accounts pose a significant risk. The high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability means that exploitation could result in data manipulation, service disruption, or unauthorized control of devices. European organizations with stringent data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR) must consider the compliance implications of such breaches. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate risk but should not lead to complacency, especially as threat actors may develop exploits over time.

1. Immediate upgrade of TinyCBOR libraries to version 0.6.1 or later where the vulnerability is fixed. 2. Implement strict local access controls and user privilege management to minimize the risk of unauthorized local access. 3. Employ application whitelisting and monitoring to detect unusual recursive calls or abnormal behavior in applications using TinyCBOR. 4. Conduct regular security audits and code reviews for embedded systems and IoT devices that utilize TinyCBOR to identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities. 5. Use endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools to monitor for signs of privilege escalation attempts. 6. Educate users about the risks of local privilege escalation and enforce policies to limit user interaction with untrusted applications. 7. For critical systems, consider network segmentation to isolate devices running vulnerable TinyCBOR versions, reducing the risk of lateral movement. 8. Maintain an inventory of devices and software versions to ensure timely patch management and vulnerability tracking.