VulnerabilityPublished 8 Jun 2025

CVE-2025-25217: OpenHarmony · NULL Pointer Dereference

Affects OpenHarmonySource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 3.3 Low.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 09:15 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

3.3Low

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

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 2% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

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

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
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: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 8 Jun 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 26 Oct 2026.

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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
OpenHarmony OpenHarmony	Affected =5.0.1 <=5.0.3	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability effectively, European organizations should: 1) Inventory and identify all devices running OpenHarmony version 5.0.3 or earlier, focusing on version 5.0.1 as specifically affected. 2) Monitor vendor communications closely for official patches or updates addressing CVE-2025-25217 and apply them promptly once available. 3) Implement strict access controls to limit local access to devices, including physical security measures and network segmentation to isolate IoT devices from general user networks. 4) Employ endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools or IoT security platforms that can detect abnormal device behavior indicative of denial of service attempts. 5) Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing focusing on IoT devices to identify potential exploitation paths. 6) Develop incident response plans that include procedures for handling IoT device outages to minimize operational disruption. 7) Where feasible, consider upgrading to newer OpenHarmony versions beyond 5.0.3 once patches are released or evaluate alternative platforms with stronger security postures.

Description

in OpenHarmony v5.0.3 and prior versions allow a local attacker case DOS through NULL pointer dereference.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability depends largely on the deployment and reliance on OpenHarmony-based devices within their infrastructure. OpenHarmony is primarily used in IoT and embedded systems, including smart home devices, industrial IoT, and possibly telecommunications equipment. A successful local denial of service attack could disrupt critical IoT services, leading to operational downtime, especially in environments where these devices perform essential functions such as building automation, manufacturing controls, or smart city infrastructure. Although the vulnerability requires local access and does not allow remote exploitation, insider threats or compromised devices within a network could leverage this flaw to cause service interruptions. This could affect availability of services and potentially lead to cascading effects if the affected devices are part of larger automated systems. However, since the vulnerability does not impact confidentiality or integrity, data breaches or unauthorized data manipulation are not a direct concern. The low severity and requirement for local access limit the overall risk, but organizations with extensive IoT deployments should still consider this vulnerability seriously to maintain operational continuity.

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #13OWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Implementation
For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
Requirements
Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V11.1.7 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

gitee.com/openharmony/security/blob/master/zh/security-disclosure/2025/2025-06.md (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 9 Jul 2025, 00:41 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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