CVE-2025-47815 is a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability identified in GNU PSPP, a free software application for statistical analysis of sampled data, analogous to SPSS. The vulnerability exists in the libpspp-core.a library, specifically within the inflate_read function, which is invoked indirectly via zip_member_read_all in the zip-reader.c source file. This function is responsible for decompressing data streams, likely from ZIP archives used internally by PSPP for handling data files. The heap-based buffer overflow (CWE-122) occurs when the program improperly manages memory allocation or bounds checking during decompression, allowing an attacker to overwrite adjacent heap memory. This can lead to arbitrary code execution, application crashes, or data corruption. The vulnerability affects GNU PSPP through version 2.0.1, with no patch links currently available. The CVSS v3.1 score is 4.5 (medium severity), with vector AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L, indicating that exploitation requires local access (AV:L), high attack complexity (AC:H), no privileges (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and the scope is changed (S:C). The impact is limited to integrity and availability, with no confidentiality loss. No known exploits are reported in the wild as of the publication date (May 10, 2025).

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-47815 depends on the extent of GNU PSPP usage within their statistical analysis workflows. PSPP is commonly used in academic, research, and governmental institutions for data analysis due to its open-source nature and compatibility with SPSS files. A successful exploitation could allow a local attacker or a malicious insider to cause application crashes or potentially execute arbitrary code, compromising the integrity and availability of statistical data and analysis results. This could disrupt research activities, lead to loss or corruption of critical data, and undermine trust in analytical outputs. While the vulnerability does not allow remote exploitation, environments where multiple users share systems or where untrusted users have local access are at higher risk. The lack of confidentiality impact reduces the risk of sensitive data leakage, but integrity and availability concerns remain significant for organizations relying on PSPP for decision-making and reporting.

Given the local access requirement and high attack complexity, mitigation should focus on reducing the attack surface and enforcing strict access controls. European organizations should: 1) Restrict local system access to trusted users only, employing strong authentication and user account management to prevent unauthorized local access. 2) Monitor and audit usage of PSPP installations to detect unusual activity or crashes that may indicate exploitation attempts. 3) Implement application sandboxing or containerization for PSPP to limit the impact of potential exploits on the host system. 4) Regularly update PSPP to the latest version once patches become available, and subscribe to GNU security advisories for timely updates. 5) Educate users about the risks of running untrusted data or files within PSPP, as malformed ZIP archives could trigger the vulnerability. 6) Employ system-level memory protection mechanisms such as ASLR and DEP to mitigate exploitation success. These targeted measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on local access control, monitoring, and containment strategies specific to PSPP's usage context.