CVE-2025-4598 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting systemd-coredump in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. The flaw arises from a race condition in the handling of SUID (Set User ID) processes' core dumps. SUID binaries run with elevated privileges, typically those of the file owner (often root), regardless of the invoking user's permissions. This vulnerability allows an attacker with limited privileges to force a SUID process to crash and exploit a timing window before systemd-coredump analyzes the /proc/pid/auxv file associated with the crashed process. By winning this race condition, the attacker can cause the Linux kernel to recycle the process ID (PID) and replace the original SUID process's core dump with a non-SUID binary's core dump. Consequently, the attacker gains unauthorized access to the privileged core dump of the original process, which may contain sensitive data loaded into memory, such as the contents of /etc/shadow. This compromises data confidentiality without requiring user interaction but does require local access and low privileges. The vulnerability does not impact integrity or availability directly but poses a significant confidentiality risk due to exposure of sensitive memory contents. The CVSS 3.1 score is 4.7 (medium), reflecting the local attack vector, high attack complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, unchanged scope, and high confidentiality impact. No known exploits are reported in the wild as of the publication date. No patches or mitigations are listed in the provided data, indicating the need for prompt vendor updates or workarounds once available.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a confidentiality risk primarily in environments running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, especially where SUID binaries are in use and sensitive data is processed or stored in memory by privileged processes. Attackers with local access—such as malicious insiders, compromised accounts, or attackers leveraging other footholds—could exploit this flaw to extract sensitive credentials or secrets, potentially leading to privilege escalation or lateral movement within networks. Sectors with stringent data protection requirements, including finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure, could face regulatory and reputational damage if sensitive data is exposed. The vulnerability's medium severity and local attack vector limit remote exploitation but do not diminish the risk in multi-user or shared environments common in enterprise settings. Organizations relying heavily on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 for server workloads or critical applications should consider this vulnerability a priority for risk assessment and remediation.

1. Apply official patches from Red Hat as soon as they become available to address the race condition in systemd-coredump. 2. Until patches are released, restrict local user access to systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, especially limiting untrusted users from executing or interacting with SUID binaries. 3. Monitor system logs for unusual crashes or core dump generation related to SUID processes to detect potential exploitation attempts. 4. Consider disabling or restricting systemd-coredump functionality for SUID processes if feasible, using systemd configuration options or kernel parameters, to reduce exposure. 5. Implement strict access controls and auditing on /proc and core dump directories to prevent unauthorized reading of core dump files. 6. Employ mandatory access control frameworks (e.g., SELinux) to enforce policies that limit process interactions and file access related to core dumps. 7. Educate system administrators about the risk and ensure that incident response plans include steps to investigate suspicious core dump activity. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling local access, monitoring specific system behaviors, and leveraging Linux security features to mitigate the race condition's impact.