CVE-2025-64494VulnerabilityPublished 8 Nov 2025Updated 10 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-64494: charmbracelet soft-serve · Improper Neutralization of Escape, Meta, or Control Sequences

Affects charmbracelet soft-serveSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.6 Medium : upgrade to 0.10.0 when convenient.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.6Medium

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

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 8% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.10.0

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

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: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
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: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 8 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 2026-10-25.

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 charmbracelet/soft-serve to 0.10.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubcharmbracelet/soft-serve`pkg:github/charmbracelet/soft-serve`Other threats	Affected <0.10.0	Fixed in 0.10.0

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 soft-serve to version 0.10.0 or later, where the vulnerability is fixed. Until upgrades are completed, implement input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data fields, specifically stripping or escaping ANSI escape sequences before rendering outputs in terminal interfaces. Educate developers and users to be cautious of unexpected terminal alerts or messages, especially those containing unusual formatting or control characters. Employ terminal emulators or shells that can restrict or disable the interpretation of ANSI escape sequences where feasible. Monitor Git server logs for suspicious inputs containing escape sequences and consider deploying intrusion detection rules to flag anomalous repository activity. Additionally, restrict access to soft-serve instances to trusted networks and authenticated users to reduce exposure. Regularly audit and review repository metadata and commit messages for suspicious content. Integrate security scanning tools that detect control character injection in code repositories as part of the CI/CD pipeline.

Description

Soft Serve is a self-hostable Git server for the command line. In versions prior to 0.10.0, there are several places where the user can insert data (e.g.names) and ANSI escape sequences are not being removed, which can then be used, for example, to show fake alerts. In the same token, git messages, when printed, are also not being sanitized. This issue is fixed in version 0.10.0.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to developers, DevOps teams, and administrators using soft-serve for internal Git hosting. The injection of ANSI escape sequences can lead to deceptive terminal outputs, potentially tricking users into executing malicious commands or disclosing sensitive information. While it does not directly compromise system availability or allow remote code execution, the manipulation of terminal displays can undermine trust in repository data and lead to indirect security breaches. Organizations relying on soft-serve for critical code repositories or CI/CD pipelines could face integrity risks if attackers exploit this flaw to inject misleading information. The impact is more pronounced in environments where terminal-based Git interactions are frequent and where users may not be trained to recognize manipulated outputs. Given the medium severity and the requirement for user interaction, the threat is moderate but should not be underestimated, especially in sectors with high security requirements such as finance, government, and critical infrastructure within Europe.

Summary

CVE-2025-64494 is a vulnerability classified under CWE-150 (Improper Neutralization of Escape, Meta, or Control Sequences) affecting charmbracelet's soft-serve, a self-hostable Git server designed for command-line use. In versions prior to 0.10.0, soft-serve fails to sanitize ANSI escape sequences embedded in user-controllable fields such as user names and git commit messages. These sequences can manipulate terminal output by injecting control characters that alter text color, cursor position, or display fake alerts, potentially misleading users or administrators. The vulnerability arises because the application directly outputs these unsanitized strings to terminal interfaces without filtering or escaping. Exploitation requires an attacker to have at least low-level privileges (PR:L) and network access (AV:N), and user interaction (UI:R) is necessary to view the malicious output. The scope is unchanged (S:U), meaning the impact is limited to the vulnerable component. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.6 (medium), reflecting limited confidentiality and integrity impact without affecting availability. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the flaw could be leveraged for social engineering, phishing within terminal sessions, or misleading users into executing harmful commands. The issue is resolved in soft-serve version 0.10.0 by properly sanitizing or removing ANSI escape sequences from user inputs and git messages before rendering.

CWE-150Improper Neutralization of Escape, Meta, or Control Sequences (opens in a new tab)
Variant weakness
The product receives input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could be interpreted as escape, meta, or control character sequences when they are sent to a downstream component.
Developers should anticipate that escape, meta and control characters/sequences will be injected/removed/manipulated in the input vectors of their product. Use an appropriate combination of denylists and allowlists to ensure only valid, expected and appropriate input is processed by the system.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Implementation · Output Encoding
While it is risky to use dynamically-generated query strings, code, or commands that mix control and data together, sometimes it may be unavoidable. Properly quote arguments and escape any special characters within those arguments.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
Server Side Request Forgery Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards (opens in a new tab)
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Email Injection (opens in a new tab)
Using Meta-characters in E-mail Headers to Inject Malicious Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Web Server Logs Tampering (opens in a new tab)
Log Injection-Tampering-Forging (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 15 Nov 2025, 04:49 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-150

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats