VulnerabilityPublished 30 Oct 2025

CVE-2025-57109: Kitware VTK · Use After Free

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 20% 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:L/I:N/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
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: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to 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 30 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

AI-suggested

Organizations should prioritize monitoring Kitware's official channels for patches addressing CVE-2025-57109 and apply updates promptly once available. Until a patch is released, practical mitigations include restricting the import of GLTF files to trusted sources only and implementing file validation or sandboxing techniques to isolate the import process. Employing runtime memory protection tools such as AddressSanitizer or similar can help detect use-after-free conditions during testing and development. Developers using VTK should audit their code paths involving vtkGLTFImporter and consider adding additional checks to validate scene node references before processing. Network-level controls can limit exposure by blocking or scrutinizing GLTF file transfers from untrusted external entities. Additionally, organizations should review incident response plans to prepare for potential exploitation scenarios involving visualization tools. Regular backups and system integrity monitoring will aid in recovery if exploitation occurs. Collaboration with software vendors and security communities can provide early warnings and shared mitigation strategies.

Description

Kitware VTK (Visualization Toolkit) 9.5.0 is vulnerable to Heap Use-After-Free in vtkGLTFImporter::ImportActors. When processing GLTF files with invalid scene node references, the application accesses string members of mesh objects that have been previously freed during actor import operations.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-57109 can be significant, particularly in sectors that depend on VTK for critical visualization tasks, such as healthcare (medical imaging), scientific research, engineering, and manufacturing. Exploitation could lead to denial of service through application crashes, disrupting workflows and potentially delaying critical operations. More severe exploitation could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, compromising system integrity and confidentiality by gaining unauthorized access or control over affected systems. This risk is heightened in environments where GLTF files are received from external or untrusted sources, such as collaborative research projects or third-party data integrations. The vulnerability's exploitation does not require authentication, increasing exposure. Given VTK's integration in specialized software, the attack surface may be limited but highly impactful within affected organizations. Disruption in healthcare imaging or industrial design could have downstream effects on patient care or product safety. The lack of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the potential for future exploitation remains high.

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

gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk/-/issues/19735 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 30 Oct 2025, 19:26 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-416

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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