CVE-2025-50422VulnerabilityPublished 4 Aug 2025Updated 26 Aug 2025

CVE-2025-50422: cairographics Cairo · Reachable Assertion

Affects cairographics CairoSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 2.9 Low.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

2.9Low

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 14% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

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

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

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
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: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 4 Aug 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 2026-10-26.

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 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
cairographics Cairo	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-50422, European organizations should: 1) Identify and inventory all software components and applications using Cairo graphics library versions up to 1.18.4 and Poppler up to 25.08.0. 2) Monitor vendor advisories and community repositories for patches or updates addressing this vulnerability and apply them promptly once available. 3) Restrict local access to systems running vulnerable software to trusted users only, minimizing the risk of local exploitation. 4) Implement application-level monitoring to detect crashes or abnormal terminations related to font rendering processes, enabling rapid incident response. 5) Where possible, consider upgrading to newer versions of Cairo and Poppler that may have resolved this issue or provide improved stability and security. 6) Employ sandboxing or containerization for applications processing untrusted documents to contain potential denial of service impacts. 7) Conduct regular security training to raise awareness about the risks of local exploits and the importance of maintaining updated software.

Description

Cairo through 1.18.4, as used in Poppler through 25.08.0, has an "unscaled->face == NULL" assertion failure for _cairo_ft_unscaled_font_fini in cairo-ft-font.c.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-50422 is limited to availability disruptions in applications that utilize the vulnerable versions of Cairo, particularly those that handle font rendering through Poppler or other dependent software. This could affect document viewers, PDF processing tools, or any graphical applications embedding Cairo. While the vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity, denial of service conditions could interrupt business operations, especially in environments where automated document processing or graphical rendering is critical. Given the local attack vector and high complexity, exploitation is unlikely remotely and would require an attacker to have local access to the system, reducing the risk in typical enterprise environments. However, in multi-user systems or shared environments, a malicious user could trigger crashes, potentially leading to service interruptions or system instability. The low severity and absence of known exploits further reduce immediate risk but do not eliminate the need for vigilance, especially in sectors relying heavily on document workflows or graphical rendering.

CWE-617Reachable Assertion (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary.
Implementation
Make sensitive open/close operation non reachable by directly user-controlled data (e.g. open/close resources)
Implementation · Input Validation
Perform input validation on user data.
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Aug 2025, 00:42 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-617

Technical details

References

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