VulnerabilityPublished 15 Aug 2025Updated 3 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-54989: FirebirdSQL firebird · NULL Pointer Dereference

Affects FirebirdSQL firebirdSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium · fixed in 5.0.3 : update FirebirdSQL firebird when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.3Medium

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

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 48% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 5.0.3, 4.0.6, 3.0.13

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
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: 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: 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 15 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 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

Upgrade FirebirdSQL firebird to 5.0.3, 4.0.6 or 3.0.13.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
FirebirdSQL firebird	Affected <3.0.13 <4.0.6 <5.0.3	Fixed in 3.0.13 4.0.6 5.0.3

AI-suggested

Upgrade FirebirdSQL to versions 3.0.13, 4.0.6, or 5.0.3 or later, where the vulnerability is patched.
If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict network access to FirebirdSQL servers using firewalls or network segmentation to limit exposure to trusted clients only.
Implement intrusion detection systems (IDS) and network monitoring to detect anomalous or malformed XDR messages targeting the database.
Regularly audit and review database server logs for signs of crashes or unusual activity indicative of attempted exploitation.
Employ rate limiting or connection throttling on database ports to reduce the risk of DoS attacks.
Develop and test incident response plans to quickly recover from potential DoS events affecting FirebirdSQL services.
Coordinate with application teams to ensure fallback or redundancy mechanisms are in place to maintain service continuity during outages.

Description

Firebird is a relational database. Prior to versions 3.0.13, 4.0.6, and 5.0.3, there is an XDR message parsing NULL pointer dereference denial-of-service vulnerability in Firebird. This specific flaw exists within the parsing of xdr message from client. It leads to NULL pointer dereference and DoS. This issue has been patched in versions 3.0.13, 4.0.6, and 5.0.3.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-54989 is denial of service, causing FirebirdSQL database servers to crash and become unavailable. For European organizations, this can lead to downtime of applications and services dependent on FirebirdSQL, potentially disrupting business operations, customer services, and internal workflows. While the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, loss of availability can affect sectors relying on real-time data processing, such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing. Extended outages could result in financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory compliance issues, especially under GDPR where service availability is critical. Organizations using FirebirdSQL in embedded systems or critical infrastructure may face operational risks. The lack of authentication requirement means attackers can exploit the vulnerability from any network location with access to the database port, increasing the attack surface. However, the absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but should not lead to complacency.

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #13OWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Implementation
For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
Requirements
Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V11.1.7 (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

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Nov 2025, 20:35 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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