VulnerabilityPublished 24 Nov 2025

CVE-2025-65501: OISM libcoap · NULL Pointer Dereference

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.3 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 16:39 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.3Medium

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:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
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: 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: 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: 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 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 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

Monitor network traffic for abnormal DTLS handshake failures or repeated connection attempts that could indicate exploitation attempts.
Apply vendor patches or updates for libcoap as soon as they become available to address the null pointer dereference.
Implement network-level protections such as rate limiting, firewall rules, or intrusion prevention systems to restrict unsolicited DTLS handshake attempts from untrusted sources.
Segment IoT and constrained device networks to limit exposure to external attackers and reduce the blast radius of potential DoS attacks.
Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focusing on IoT and constrained protocol implementations to identify similar weaknesses.
Engage with device and software vendors to confirm usage of libcoap versions and request security updates if necessary.
Prepare incident response plans that include procedures for mitigating DoS attacks on constrained devices and services.
Educate operational technology and IoT teams about this vulnerability and encourage proactive monitoring and patch management.

Description

Null pointer dereference in coap_dtls_info_callback() in OISM libcoap 4.3.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a DTLS handshake where SSL_get_app_data() returns NULL.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-65501 is a denial of service condition affecting devices and services using libcoap 4.3.5 with DTLS enabled. This can disrupt availability of IoT devices, industrial control systems, and other constrained environment applications relying on CoAP for communication. Critical infrastructure sectors such as energy, manufacturing, and smart city deployments that utilize constrained devices for monitoring and control could experience service interruptions. While confidentiality and integrity are not directly impacted, the loss of availability could lead to operational disruptions, delayed responses, and potential cascading effects in automated systems. The medium severity score reflects the limited scope of impact but acknowledges the ease of remote exploitation without privileges. Organizations with large IoT deployments or those integrating constrained devices into their networks should assess their exposure and readiness to respond to potential DoS attacks exploiting this vulnerability.

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

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 1 Dec 2025, 14:38 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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