CVE-2025-32988: Double Free in Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
A flaw was found in GnuTLS. A double-free vulnerability exists in GnuTLS due to incorrect ownership handling in the export logic of Subject Alternative Name (SAN) entries containing an otherName. If the type-id OID is invalid or malformed, GnuTLS will call asn1_delete_structure() on an ASN.1 node it does not own, leading to a double-free condition when the parent function or caller later attempts to free the same structure. This vulnerability can be triggered using only public GnuTLS APIs and may result in denial of service or memory corruption, depending on allocator behavior.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
CVE-2025-32988 is a medium-severity double-free vulnerability found in the GnuTLS library, specifically affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. The flaw arises from improper ownership handling in the export logic of Subject Alternative Name (SAN) entries that contain an 'otherName' field. When the type-id Object Identifier (OID) is invalid or malformed, GnuTLS mistakenly calls asn1_delete_structure() on an ASN.1 node it does not own. This leads to a double-free condition when the parent function or caller later attempts to free the same memory structure again. The vulnerability can be triggered remotely using only public GnuTLS APIs, without requiring authentication or user interaction. Exploitation may result in denial of service (DoS) due to application or system crashes, or potentially memory corruption, which could be leveraged for further attacks depending on the allocator behavior. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5, reflecting a network attack vector with high attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, and impact limited to integrity (low) and availability (high). No known exploits are reported in the wild as of the publication date, July 10, 2025. The affected product is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, which bundles GnuTLS as a core cryptographic library used in various network services and applications for secure communications. The flaw is technical and subtle, involving ASN.1 parsing and memory management, which are critical components in TLS implementations.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, especially for those relying on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 in their infrastructure. GnuTLS is widely used in secure communications, including web servers, mail servers, VPNs, and other network services. Exploitation could lead to denial of service conditions, causing service outages and disruption of business operations. Memory corruption could potentially be escalated to remote code execution, although this is not confirmed and would depend on allocator behavior and exploitation complexity. Critical sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and telecommunications that depend on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 for secure communications could face operational risks and potential data integrity issues. Additionally, disruption of services could affect compliance with European data protection regulations like GDPR if availability is impacted. Since the vulnerability can be triggered remotely without authentication, it increases the attack surface for external threat actors targeting exposed services. However, the high attack complexity somewhat limits the ease of exploitation.
Mitigation Recommendations
European organizations should prioritize patching Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 systems once an official fix is released by Red Hat. Until patches are available, organizations can mitigate risk by limiting exposure of services using GnuTLS to untrusted networks, employing network-level filtering and segmentation to restrict access. Monitoring and logging of TLS-related service crashes or anomalies can help detect exploitation attempts. Administrators should audit their use of GnuTLS APIs, especially those handling SAN entries with otherName fields, and consider disabling or restricting features that process untrusted or malformed certificates if feasible. Employing application-layer mitigations such as rate limiting and anomaly detection on TLS connections may reduce exploitation likelihood. Regularly updating and hardening the underlying operating system and cryptographic libraries will also reduce overall risk. Finally, organizations should prepare incident response plans for potential denial of service attacks targeting critical services.
Affected Countries
Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Finland
CVE-2025-32988: Double Free in Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Description
A flaw was found in GnuTLS. A double-free vulnerability exists in GnuTLS due to incorrect ownership handling in the export logic of Subject Alternative Name (SAN) entries containing an otherName. If the type-id OID is invalid or malformed, GnuTLS will call asn1_delete_structure() on an ASN.1 node it does not own, leading to a double-free condition when the parent function or caller later attempts to free the same structure. This vulnerability can be triggered using only public GnuTLS APIs and may result in denial of service or memory corruption, depending on allocator behavior.
AI-Powered Analysis
Technical Analysis
CVE-2025-32988 is a medium-severity double-free vulnerability found in the GnuTLS library, specifically affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. The flaw arises from improper ownership handling in the export logic of Subject Alternative Name (SAN) entries that contain an 'otherName' field. When the type-id Object Identifier (OID) is invalid or malformed, GnuTLS mistakenly calls asn1_delete_structure() on an ASN.1 node it does not own. This leads to a double-free condition when the parent function or caller later attempts to free the same memory structure again. The vulnerability can be triggered remotely using only public GnuTLS APIs, without requiring authentication or user interaction. Exploitation may result in denial of service (DoS) due to application or system crashes, or potentially memory corruption, which could be leveraged for further attacks depending on the allocator behavior. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5, reflecting a network attack vector with high attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, and impact limited to integrity (low) and availability (high). No known exploits are reported in the wild as of the publication date, July 10, 2025. The affected product is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, which bundles GnuTLS as a core cryptographic library used in various network services and applications for secure communications. The flaw is technical and subtle, involving ASN.1 parsing and memory management, which are critical components in TLS implementations.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, especially for those relying on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 in their infrastructure. GnuTLS is widely used in secure communications, including web servers, mail servers, VPNs, and other network services. Exploitation could lead to denial of service conditions, causing service outages and disruption of business operations. Memory corruption could potentially be escalated to remote code execution, although this is not confirmed and would depend on allocator behavior and exploitation complexity. Critical sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and telecommunications that depend on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 for secure communications could face operational risks and potential data integrity issues. Additionally, disruption of services could affect compliance with European data protection regulations like GDPR if availability is impacted. Since the vulnerability can be triggered remotely without authentication, it increases the attack surface for external threat actors targeting exposed services. However, the high attack complexity somewhat limits the ease of exploitation.
Mitigation Recommendations
European organizations should prioritize patching Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 systems once an official fix is released by Red Hat. Until patches are available, organizations can mitigate risk by limiting exposure of services using GnuTLS to untrusted networks, employing network-level filtering and segmentation to restrict access. Monitoring and logging of TLS-related service crashes or anomalies can help detect exploitation attempts. Administrators should audit their use of GnuTLS APIs, especially those handling SAN entries with otherName fields, and consider disabling or restricting features that process untrusted or malformed certificates if feasible. Employing application-layer mitigations such as rate limiting and anomaly detection on TLS connections may reduce exploitation likelihood. Regularly updating and hardening the underlying operating system and cryptographic libraries will also reduce overall risk. Finally, organizations should prepare incident response plans for potential denial of service attacks targeting critical services.
For access to advanced analysis and higher rate limits, contact root@offseq.com
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.1
- Assigner Short Name
- redhat
- Date Reserved
- 2025-04-15T01:31:12.104Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 686f76caa83201eaaca669ce
Added to database: 7/10/2025, 8:16:10 AM
Last enriched: 7/10/2025, 8:31:26 AM
Last updated: 7/10/2025, 2:23:29 PM
Views: 3
Related Threats
CVE-2025-46789: CWE-120 Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input ('Classic Buffer Overflow') in Zoom Communications Inc. Zoom Clients for Windows
MediumCVE-2025-46788: CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation in Zoom Communications Inc. Zoom Workplace for Linux
HighCVE-2025-6395: NULL Pointer Dereference in Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
MediumCVE-2025-53364: CWE-497: Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere in parse-community parse-server
MediumCVE-2025-46835: CWE-88: Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection') in j6t git-gui
HighActions
Updates to AI analysis are available only with a Pro account. Contact root@offseq.com for access.
Need enhanced features?
Contact root@offseq.com for Pro access with improved analysis and higher rate limits.