CVE-2025-62609VulnerabilityPublished 21 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-62609: ml-explore mlx · NULL Pointer Dereference

Affects ml-explore mlxSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium : upgrade to 0.29.4 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 07:57 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

5.5Medium

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

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 34% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.29.4

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

Base metrics

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: Low
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Threat metrics

Exploit Maturity: POC

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, 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: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system 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 Vulnerable System 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 Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Exploit Maturity: POC: Based on threat intelligence sources each of the following must apply: · Proof-of-concept is publicly available · No knowledge of reported attempts to exploit this vulnerability · No knowledge of publicly available solutions used to simplify attempts to exploit the vulnerability

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 21 Nov 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

Upgrade ml-explore/mlx to 0.29.4.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubml-explore/mlx`pkg:github/ml-explore/mlx`Other threats	Affected <0.29.4	Fixed in 0.29.4

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately upgrade all instances of the mlx framework to version 0.29.4 or later, where the NULL pointer dereference vulnerability has been patched. They should audit their ML workflows to identify any components that load GGUF files, especially those accepting files from external or untrusted sources, and implement strict input validation and file integrity checks. Employ sandboxing or containerization for ML applications to contain potential crashes and prevent cascading failures. Monitoring and alerting should be enhanced to detect abnormal application crashes or segmentation faults related to mlx processes. Network-level controls can be used to restrict the sources of GGUF files to trusted repositories or internal systems. Additionally, organizations should review dependency management practices to ensure timely updates of third-party libraries like mlx and gguflib. Finally, incorporating fuzz testing and static analysis in the development lifecycle can help detect similar pointer validation issues proactively.

Description

MLX is an array framework for machine learning on Apple silicon. Prior to version 0.29.4, there is a segmentation fault in mlx::core::load_gguf() when loading malicious GGUF files. Untrusted pointer from external gguflib library is dereferenced without validation, causing application crash. This issue has been patched in version 0.29.4.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-62609 is the potential for denial of service (DoS) conditions in applications relying on the mlx framework for machine learning on Apple silicon devices. This could disrupt critical ML workloads, data processing pipelines, or AI-driven services, leading to operational downtime and productivity loss. Although the vulnerability does not allow unauthorized data access or code execution, repeated exploitation could degrade service availability and reliability. Organizations in sectors such as technology, research, finance, and healthcare that leverage Apple silicon-based ML solutions may experience interruptions if malicious GGUF files are introduced, either accidentally or through targeted attacks. The absence of authentication or user interaction requirements increases the risk of automated exploitation in environments where GGUF files are ingested from external or untrusted sources. However, the impact is limited to applications using vulnerable mlx versions and loading GGUF files, thus the scope is somewhat contained. Prompt patching is essential to maintain service continuity and prevent exploitation.

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

github.com/ml-explore/mlx/security/advisories/GHSA-j842-xgm4-wf88 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 21 Nov 2025, 19:19 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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