CVE-2025-7424 is a high-severity vulnerability identified in the libxslt library used within Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. The root cause of this flaw is a type confusion issue arising from the reuse of the same memory field, named 'psvi', for both stylesheet and input data during XML transformations. This improper handling can cause the application to interpret data incorrectly, leading to memory corruption or crashes. Specifically, the vulnerability can be triggered when processing XML transformations, causing the application to either crash or behave unexpectedly. The vulnerability does not require user interaction or privileges to exploit, but it does require local access (attack vector: local). The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8, indicating a high severity level. The CVSS vector (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H) shows that the attack requires local access and high attack complexity, no privileges or user interaction are needed, and the scope is changed, with no confidentiality impact but high integrity and availability impacts. While no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the potential for denial of service or memory corruption could be leveraged by attackers to disrupt services or possibly escalate attacks if combined with other vulnerabilities. The vulnerability affects Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, a widely used enterprise-grade Linux distribution, particularly in server and cloud environments. The lack of available patches at the time of publication suggests that affected organizations should prioritize monitoring and mitigation efforts until official fixes are released.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk, especially for those relying on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 in critical infrastructure, cloud services, or enterprise environments. The ability to cause application crashes or memory corruption can lead to denial of service conditions, disrupting business operations and potentially causing downtime in essential services. The integrity impact means that attackers could manipulate or corrupt data processed by vulnerable XML transformations, which may affect data reliability and trustworthiness. Given the high attack complexity and requirement for local access, exploitation is less likely to occur remotely but remains a concern for insider threats or compromised local accounts. Organizations in sectors such as finance, telecommunications, government, and manufacturing—where Red Hat Enterprise Linux is prevalent—may face operational disruptions and reputational damage if this vulnerability is exploited. Additionally, the scope change in the CVSS vector indicates that the vulnerability affects components beyond the initially targeted process, potentially impacting other system components or services.

European organizations should implement several specific mitigation strategies: 1) Restrict local access strictly to trusted users and processes, employing robust access controls and monitoring to detect unauthorized local activity. 2) Employ application whitelisting and integrity monitoring on systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 to detect anomalous behavior or unauthorized changes in libxslt or related XML processing components. 3) Use containerization or sandboxing techniques for applications that perform XML transformations to limit the impact of potential crashes or memory corruption. 4) Monitor system logs and application behavior for signs of crashes or memory errors related to XML processing, enabling early detection of exploitation attempts. 5) Coordinate with Red Hat for timely patch deployment once updates addressing CVE-2025-7424 become available, and test patches in controlled environments before production rollout. 6) Consider deploying intrusion detection systems (IDS) or endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of identifying exploitation attempts or abnormal local activity related to this vulnerability. 7) Educate system administrators and security teams about the vulnerability specifics to enhance vigilance and response readiness.