VulnerabilityPublished 14 Aug 2025Updated 11 Sep 2025

CVE-2025-50518: Use After Free

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.8 Critical.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 08:30 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

9.8Critical

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

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 39% 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:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
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: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to 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 14 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 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 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

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-50518 effectively, European organizations should: 1) Conduct a thorough inventory of all IoT and embedded devices using libcoap to identify potentially vulnerable systems. 2) Review and audit application code that integrates libcoap to ensure correct usage patterns, specifically avoiding scenarios that lead to use-after-free conditions in coap_delete_pdu_lkd. 3) Engage with libcoap maintainers or vendors for patches or updated versions that address this vulnerability once available. 4) Implement network segmentation and strict access controls to isolate IoT devices from critical network segments, reducing the attack surface. 5) Deploy runtime protection mechanisms such as memory safety tools (e.g., AddressSanitizer) during development and testing phases to detect improper memory handling. 6) Monitor network traffic for anomalous CoAP messages that could indicate exploitation attempts. 7) Establish incident response plans tailored to IoT device compromise scenarios. These steps go beyond generic advice by emphasizing code audits for correct library usage, proactive device identification, and network-level containment strategies.

Description

A use-after-free vulnerability exists in the coap_delete_pdu_lkd function within coap_pdu.c of the libcoap library. This issue occurs due to improper handling of memory after the freeing of a PDU object, leading to potential memory corruption or the possibility of executing arbitrary code. NOTE: this is disputed by the Supplier because it only occurs when an application uses libcoap incorrectly.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-50518 could be substantial, particularly for industries and sectors heavily reliant on IoT deployments, such as manufacturing, smart cities, utilities, healthcare, and transportation. Exploitation could lead to full system compromise of affected devices, resulting in unauthorized control, data theft, disruption of critical services, or lateral movement within networks. Given the critical severity and remote exploitability without authentication, attackers could leverage this vulnerability to infiltrate networks through vulnerable IoT endpoints, potentially bypassing perimeter defenses. This risk is amplified in environments where IoT devices are integrated into operational technology (OT) systems or critical infrastructure. Additionally, the lack of user interaction requirement facilitates automated exploitation campaigns. The disputed nature of the vulnerability suggests that organizations must carefully audit their use of libcoap to confirm whether their implementations are vulnerable. Failure to do so could expose European organizations to significant confidentiality, integrity, and availability risks, potentially leading to regulatory repercussions under GDPR if personal data is compromised.

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

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 11 Sep 2025, 19:10 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-416

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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