CVE-2025-47268 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting the iputils package, specifically the ping utility, through version 20240905. The issue arises from a signed 64-bit integer overflow during timestamp multiplication when processing ICMP Echo Reply packets. This vulnerability is categorized under CWE-190 (Integer Overflow or Wraparound). When a specially crafted ICMP Echo Reply packet is received, the ping utility performs a multiplication operation on a timestamp value that can overflow the signed 64-bit integer range. This overflow leads to incorrect calculations, which in turn cause the application to either crash or behave incorrectly, resulting in a denial of service (DoS). The vulnerability does not require any privileges or user interaction to be exploited and can be triggered remotely by sending malicious ICMP Echo Reply packets to a vulnerable system running the affected ping utility. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 6.5, reflecting a medium severity with network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, unchanged scope, no confidentiality impact, low integrity impact, and low availability impact. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability affects all versions up to 20240905, indicating that users of iputils should be vigilant for updates.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to network diagnostic and monitoring infrastructure that relies on the iputils ping utility. Since ping is a common tool used for network troubleshooting and monitoring, exploitation could disrupt network operations by causing denial of service on affected hosts. This could lead to temporary loss of network visibility or monitoring capabilities, impacting incident response and network management. While the vulnerability does not allow for code execution or data exfiltration, the denial of service could be leveraged as part of a broader attack to degrade network reliability or mask other malicious activities. Organizations with automated network monitoring systems that rely on ping responses may experience false negatives or system crashes, potentially delaying detection of other threats. The impact is more significant in environments where uptime and continuous monitoring are critical, such as financial institutions, telecommunications providers, and critical infrastructure sectors prevalent in Europe.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Monitor for updates from the iputils project and apply patches promptly once available. 2) Implement network-level filtering to restrict or monitor ICMP Echo Reply packets from untrusted sources, reducing exposure to crafted malicious packets. 3) Employ intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) capable of detecting anomalous ICMP traffic patterns indicative of exploitation attempts. 4) Use alternative or updated network diagnostic tools that are not vulnerable or have been patched. 5) Conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing focusing on network utilities and their handling of ICMP traffic. 6) Harden network segmentation to limit the exposure of critical systems to external ICMP traffic. 7) Educate network administrators about the risks of ICMP-based attacks and encourage cautious use of ping in automated scripts or monitoring tools until the vulnerability is resolved.