CVE-2025-64330 is a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability classified under CWE-122, found in the Suricata network IDS/IPS/NSM engine developed by the Open Information Security Foundation (OISF). The vulnerability arises from a single-byte read overflow during the logging process of verdicts in eve.alert and eve.drop JSON records. Specifically, when the per-packet alert queue is filled with alerts and subsequently a pass rule is processed, Suricata attempts to log the verdict, triggering a heap overflow that can cause the process to crash. This vulnerability affects Suricata versions earlier than 7.0.13 and 8.0.2, where the issue has been addressed. The flaw does not impact confidentiality or integrity but severely affects availability by causing denial of service through crashes. Exploitation requires no authentication or user interaction and can be triggered remotely over the network, making it relatively easy to exploit. Mitigation includes upgrading to patched versions and increasing the alert queue size parameter (packet-alert-max) in the suricata.yaml configuration to reduce the likelihood of triggering the overflow. No known exploits have been reported in the wild as of the publication date, but the vulnerability's characteristics make it a significant risk for environments relying on Suricata for network security monitoring and intrusion prevention.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to network security infrastructure availability. Suricata is widely used in enterprise, government, and critical infrastructure sectors across Europe for intrusion detection and prevention. A successful exploit could cause Suricata to crash, resulting in loss of network monitoring and potential blind spots to malicious activity, increasing the risk of undetected attacks. This is particularly critical for sectors such as finance, energy, telecommunications, and public administration, where continuous network monitoring is essential for operational security and regulatory compliance. The denial of service could also disrupt incident response capabilities and delay threat detection. While the vulnerability does not compromise data confidentiality or integrity directly, the availability impact can indirectly increase exposure to other threats. Organizations with high network traffic and complex rule sets are more susceptible due to the alert queue conditions required to trigger the overflow. The lack of known exploits in the wild provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the ease of exploitation and network attack vector necessitate urgent patching and configuration adjustments.

1. Upgrade Suricata to version 7.0.13 or 8.0.2 or later immediately to apply the official patch addressing the heap overflow. 2. Increase the packet-alert-max parameter in the suricata.yaml configuration to enlarge the per-packet alert queue size, reducing the chance of triggering the overflow condition. 3. Review and optimize Suricata rule sets to minimize unnecessary alerts that could fill the alert queue rapidly. 4. Implement network segmentation and filtering to limit exposure of Suricata sensors to untrusted or high-risk traffic sources. 5. Monitor Suricata logs and system stability closely for signs of crashes or abnormal behavior indicative of attempted exploitation. 6. Employ redundancy in network monitoring infrastructure to maintain coverage if one sensor is impacted. 7. Conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration tests focusing on IDS/IPS components. 8. Stay informed on OISF advisories and community updates for any emerging exploit reports or additional mitigations. These steps go beyond generic patching by addressing configuration tuning and operational resilience specific to this vulnerability.