CVE-2025-31176 is a vulnerability identified in the gnuplot software, specifically within the plot3d_points() function. This flaw manifests as a NULL pointer dereference, which can lead to a segmentation fault and consequently cause the affected system to crash. Gnuplot is a widely used command-line driven graphing utility that generates plots and graphs from data sets, commonly utilized in scientific, engineering, and academic environments. The vulnerability arises when the function attempts to access or manipulate memory through a pointer that has not been properly initialized or has been set to NULL, resulting in an invalid memory access. This causes the application to terminate unexpectedly, impacting availability. The CVSS 3.1 base score for this vulnerability is 6.2, categorized as medium severity. The vector indicates that the attack requires local access (AV:L), has low attack complexity (AC:L), does not require privileges (PR:N), nor user interaction (UI:N), and impacts availability only (A:H) without affecting confidentiality or integrity. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no patches or vendor advisories have been linked yet. The vulnerability is significant primarily because it can cause denial of service (DoS) conditions on systems running vulnerable versions of gnuplot, potentially disrupting workflows or automated processes that rely on this tool.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-31176 is the risk of denial of service due to system crashes when gnuplot is used in local environments. This can affect research institutions, universities, engineering firms, and any enterprise relying on gnuplot for data visualization and analysis. While the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, the availability impact could disrupt critical data processing pipelines or scientific computations, leading to operational delays and productivity losses. Organizations with automated systems or batch jobs invoking gnuplot may experience unexpected failures, requiring manual intervention and potentially affecting service level agreements. Since exploitation requires local access, the threat is more relevant in environments where multiple users share systems or where attackers have already gained some foothold. The absence of user interaction and privileges needed for exploitation increases the risk in multi-user or less strictly controlled environments. However, the lack of remote exploitability limits the threat scope to internal actors or attackers with some level of system access.

To mitigate CVE-2025-31176, European organizations should first identify all systems running gnuplot, especially those used in multi-user or shared environments. Applying vendor patches or updates as soon as they become available is critical. In the absence of patches, organizations can implement the following measures: restrict local access to systems running gnuplot to trusted users only, enforce strict user permissions and access controls to prevent unauthorized execution, and monitor system logs for unexpected crashes or segmentation faults related to gnuplot processes. Additionally, consider isolating critical gnuplot workloads in sandboxed or containerized environments to limit the impact of crashes. For automated workflows, implement error handling and restart mechanisms to recover gracefully from potential crashes. Finally, conduct user awareness training to ensure that users understand the risks of running untrusted scripts or data inputs through gnuplot, as malformed inputs could trigger the vulnerability.