CVE-2025-6817VulnerabilityPublished 28 Jun 2025Updated 30 Jun 2025

CVE-2025-6817: HDF5 · Resource Consumption

Affects HDF5Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.8 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

4.8Medium

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 13% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Base metrics

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: Low
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: Local: The vulnerable system is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or through terminal emulation (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., using social engineering techniques to trick a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
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: Low: The attacker requires privileges that provide basic capabilities that are typically limited to settings and resources owned by a single low-privileged user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges has the ability to access only non-sensitive resources.
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 28 Jun 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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubhdfgroup/hdf5`pkg:github/hdfgroup/hdf5`Other threats	Affected =1.14.6	Fixed in–

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AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-6817, European organizations should: 1) Immediately audit their environments to identify deployments of HDF5 version 1.14.6 and assess exposure to local users with access to vulnerable systems. 2) Restrict local access privileges to trusted users only, implementing strict access controls and monitoring for unusual resource usage patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. 4) Employ system-level resource limits (e.g., cgroups on Linux) to constrain the maximum resources any single process or user can consume, thereby limiting the impact of resource exhaustion attacks. 5) Enhance logging and alerting mechanisms to detect abnormal resource consumption or process behavior related to HDF5 operations. 6) Educate local users and administrators about the risk of this vulnerability and the importance of maintaining strict local access policies. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on local access control, resource management, and proactive monitoring tailored to the nature of this vulnerability.

Description

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in HDF5 1.14.6. This issue affects the function H5C__load_entry of the file /src/H5Centry.c. The manipulation leads to resource consumption. The attack needs to be approached locally. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-6817 primarily concerns systems that utilize HDF5 1.14.6 for data storage and processing, particularly in research institutions, scientific computing centers, engineering firms, and industries relying on large-scale data analytics. Resource consumption vulnerabilities can lead to denial of service by exhausting memory or CPU resources, potentially disrupting critical data processing workflows. Although the attack requires local access, insider threats or compromised local accounts could exploit this vulnerability to degrade system availability. In sectors such as healthcare, energy, and manufacturing, where HDF5 is often used for managing complex datasets, such disruptions could delay operations or analysis, impacting decision-making and service delivery. The medium severity rating suggests that while the vulnerability is not critical, it still poses a tangible risk to system stability and availability, which European organizations should address promptly to maintain operational continuity and data integrity.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 28 Jun 2025, 11:54 UTC

Technical details

References

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