VulnerabilityPublished 15 Oct 2025Updated 26 Feb 2026

CVE-2025-48008: F5 BIG-IP · Use After Free

Affects F5 BIG-IPSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 38% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 15 Oct 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
F5 BIG-IP	Affected =17.1.0 =16.1.0 =15.1.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Until official patches are released, organizations should consider the following specific mitigation steps: 1) Disable Multipath TCP (MPTCP) on all BIG-IP virtual servers where it is enabled, as this feature triggers the vulnerability. 2) Restrict network access to BIG-IP management and traffic interfaces using strict firewall rules and network segmentation to limit exposure to untrusted networks. 3) Monitor BIG-IP system logs and TMM process status for unexpected terminations or crashes that may indicate exploitation attempts. 4) Implement redundancy and failover mechanisms to minimize service disruption if a BIG-IP device becomes unavailable. 5) Stay informed by subscribing to F5 security advisories and promptly apply patches once they are released for the affected versions. 6) Conduct a risk assessment to identify critical services dependent on BIG-IP and prepare incident response plans for potential DoS scenarios. 7) Avoid enabling experimental or advanced TCP features like MPTCP in production environments unless necessary and fully tested. These targeted actions go beyond generic advice by focusing on the specific vulnerable feature and operational practices to reduce attack surface and impact.

Description

When a TCP profile with Multipath TCP (MPTCP) enabled is configured on a virtual server, undisclosed traffic along with conditions beyond the attacker's control can cause the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) to terminate. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-48008 is a denial of service condition caused by the termination of the Traffic Management Microkernel (TMM) on affected F5 BIG-IP devices. This disruption can lead to loss of load balancing, application delivery, and security services provided by BIG-IP, potentially causing downtime for critical enterprise and service provider applications. Organizations relying on BIG-IP for high availability and traffic management may experience service outages, degraded performance, and increased operational risk. Since the vulnerability does not affect confidentiality or integrity, data breaches or unauthorized data modification are not direct concerns. However, the availability impact can indirectly affect business continuity, customer trust, and compliance with service level agreements (SLAs). The ease of remote exploitation without authentication increases the risk profile, especially in environments where BIG-IP devices are exposed to untrusted networks. The lack of known exploits in the wild currently reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the potential for future attacks once exploit code becomes available. Overall, the vulnerability poses a significant threat to organizations using vulnerable BIG-IP versions with MPTCP enabled, particularly those in sectors requiring robust and uninterrupted network services.

CWE-416Use After Free (opens in a new tab)
Variant weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #7
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.
Architecture and Design · Language Selection
Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000150614 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Feb 2026, 05:15 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-416

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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