CVE-2025-31498VulnerabilityPublished 13 May 2025Updated 11 Oct 2026

SUSE · security update for nodejs

Affects SUSESource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

Severity

Medium

Rated by Threat Radar · No CVSS score from NVD or the CNA

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 47% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 13 May 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
SUSE Product Security Team SUSE	Affected >=20.0.0 <=20.18.2	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Red Hat has released an official security update addressing this vulnerability. Users of Node.js 20 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 should apply the update as described in Red Hat Advisory RHSA-2025:4461. The vendor provides detailed instructions for applying the update at https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258. No additional mitigation steps are required beyond applying the official patch.

Description

A use-after-free vulnerability (CVE-2025-31498) exists in the c-ares library used by Node.js 20 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. This flaw occurs in the read_answers() function and could lead to memory corruption. Red Hat has released a security update to address this issue with a moderate severity rating. No known exploits are reported in the wild. Users running affected Node.js 20 versions on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 should apply the update provided by Red Hat.

Impact

The vulnerability could lead to memory corruption in affected Node.js 20 packages on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. While this type of flaw can potentially be exploited to cause application crashes or other unintended behavior, no known exploits are currently reported in the wild. The impact is rated moderate by Red Hat.

Summary

CVE-2025-31498 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the c-ares library's read_answers() function, which is used by Node.js 20 packages distributed by Red Hat for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. The vulnerability could cause memory corruption. Red Hat has issued a security advisory (RHSA-2025:4461) with a moderate severity rating and released updated Node.js 20 packages to fix this issue. The advisory covers multiple architectures including x86_64, s390x, ppc64le, and aarch64. No active exploitation has been reported.

CWE-416Use After Free (opens in a new tab)
Variant weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #7
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.
Architecture and Design · Language Selection
Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 11 Oct 2026, 22:16 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-416

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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