CVE-2025-8851VulnerabilityPublished 11 Aug 2025Updated 12 Aug 2025

CVE-2025-8851: LibTIFF · Stack-based Buffer Overflow

Affects LibTIFFSource 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: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 8% 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:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: Low
Vulnerable system integrity: Low
Vulnerable system availability: Low
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

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: 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 Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system 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 to 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.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 11 Aug 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
LibTIFF	Affected =4.5.0 =4.5.1	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-8851, European organizations should: 1) Immediately apply the official patch or update LibTIFF to a version beyond 4.5.1 where the vulnerability is fixed. 2) Conduct an inventory of all systems and applications using LibTIFF, especially those handling TIFF files in imaging or document processing workflows. 3) Restrict local access to systems running vulnerable versions of LibTIFF to trusted users only, enforcing the principle of least privilege. 4) Implement endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for unusual process behavior or crashes related to TIFF processing tools like tiffcrop. 5) Employ application whitelisting and sandboxing for tools that process TIFF files to limit the impact of potential exploitation. 6) Educate system administrators and users about the risks of local exploitation and encourage reporting of suspicious activity. 7) Regularly review and update internal security policies to ensure that local access controls and patch management processes are robust and timely.

Description

A vulnerability was determined in LibTIFF up to 4.5.1. Affected by this issue is the function readSeparateStripsetoBuffer of the file tools/tiffcrop.c of the component tiffcrop. The manipulation leads to stack-based buffer overflow. Local access is required to approach this attack. The patch is identified as 8a7a48d7a645992ca83062b3a1873c951661e2b3. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-8851 depends largely on the deployment of LibTIFF in their environments. LibTIFF is commonly used in imaging software, document management systems, and some scientific or medical imaging applications. A successful exploit could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges or disrupt services by causing application crashes. This could lead to data corruption or denial of service in critical imaging workflows, potentially affecting sectors such as healthcare, government, and media where TIFF files are prevalent. However, since exploitation requires local access and low privileges, the risk of remote compromise is low, limiting the threat to insider attackers or those who have already gained some foothold in the network. European organizations with strict access controls and endpoint protection may mitigate the risk effectively, but those with less mature internal security controls could face higher exposure. Additionally, the vulnerability could be leveraged as part of a multi-stage attack chain to escalate privileges or move laterally within a network.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 19 Aug 2025, 01:47 UTC

Technical details

References

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