VulnerabilityPublished 24 Oct 2025

CVE-2025-62723: halfgaar FlashMQ · Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime

Affects halfgaar FlashMQSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.3 Medium : upgrade to 1.23.2 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 15:59 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.3Medium

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

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 27% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 1.23.2

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
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: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
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 24 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

Upgrade halfgaar/FlashMQ to 1.23.2.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubhalfgaar/FlashMQ`pkg:github/halfgaar/FlashMQ`Other threats	Affected <1.23.2	Fixed in 1.23.2

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 FlashMQ to version 1.23.2 or later, where the resource release issue is fixed. Until patching is possible, implement strict access controls and monitoring on MQTT broker authentication to prevent unauthorized session creation. Employ network segmentation to isolate MQTT brokers from untrusted networks and limit access to trusted clients only. Monitor broker resource usage and session counts to detect abnormal accumulation of QoS messages indicative of exploitation attempts. Implement rate limiting or session quotas per user to reduce the risk of resource exhaustion. Regularly audit user credentials and enforce strong authentication mechanisms to minimize the risk of credential compromise. Additionally, consider deploying MQTT brokers with built-in resource management safeguards or alternative brokers with robust session handling if FlashMQ cannot be updated promptly.

Description

FlashMQ is a MQTT broker/server, designed for multi-CPU environments. Prior to version 1.23.2, any authenticated user can create sessions and have them collect QoS messages. When not sent to a client, these are then not released upon (eventual) session expiration. Version 1.23.2 fixes the issue.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability primarily threatens the availability of MQTT broker services running FlashMQ versions prior to 1.23.2. Organizations using FlashMQ in critical infrastructure, industrial automation, or IoT deployments could experience service degradation or outages due to resource exhaustion caused by unreleased QoS messages. This may disrupt operational technology (OT) environments or cloud services relying on MQTT messaging. Although the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity, denial of service conditions can impact business continuity, safety systems, and real-time monitoring applications. The requirement for authentication limits exposure to internal or compromised users, but insider threats or credential theft could enable exploitation. Given the increasing adoption of MQTT in European smart manufacturing, energy, and transportation sectors, the risk of operational disruption is significant if patches are not applied promptly.

CWE-772Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not release a resource after its effective lifetime has ended, i.e., after the resource is no longer needed.
Requirements · Language Selection
Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation
It is good practice to be responsible for freeing all resources you allocate and to be consistent with how and where you free resources in a function. If you allocate resources that you intend to free upon completion of the function, you must be sure to free the resources at all exit points for that function including…
Operation · Architecture and Design · Resource Limitation
Use resource-limiting settings provided by the operating system or environment. For example, when managing system resources in POSIX, setrlimit() can be used to set limits for certain types of resources, and getrlimit() can determine how many resources are available.
Attack patterns
HTTP DoS (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 24 Oct 2025, 20:50 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-772

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats