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Vulnerability · Published May 27, 2025 · Assigned by redhat

CVE-2025-5278Coreutils: heap buffer under-read in gnu coreutils sort via key specification

Medium 4.4

In plain English

A medium-severity stack buffer overflow in coreutils. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 24% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)4.4Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 76.0% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

A flaw was found in GNU Coreutils. The sort utility's begfield() function is vulnerable to a heap buffer under-read. The program may access memory outside the allocated buffer if a user runs a crafted command using the traditional key format. A malicious input could lead to a crash or leak sensitive data.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
AlmaLinux:10coreutils9.5-8.el10_2ALSA-2026:33124
AlmaLinux:8coreutils8.30-21.el8_10ALSA-2026:69964
AlmaLinux:9coreutils8.32-41.el9_8ALSA-2026:28911
AlmaLinux:10coreutils-common9.5-8.el10_2ALSA-2026:33124
AlmaLinux:8coreutils-common8.30-21.el8_10ALSA-2026:69964
AlmaLinux:9coreutils-common8.32-41.el9_8ALSA-2026:28911
AlmaLinux:10coreutils-single9.5-8.el10_2ALSA-2026:33124
AlmaLinux:8coreutils-single8.30-21.el8_10ALSA-2026:69964
AlmaLinux:9coreutils-single8.32-41.el9_8ALSA-2026:28911
Debian:12coreutilsno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2025-5278
Debian:13coreutilsno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2025-5278
Debian:14coreutilsno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2025-5278
Rocky Linux:10coreutils0:9.5-8.el10_2RLSA-2026:33124
Rocky Linux:8coreutils0:8.30-21.el8_10RLSA-2026:69964
Rocky Linux:9coreutils0:8.32-41.el9_8RLSA-2026:28911
Ubuntu:22.04:LTScoreutils8.32-4.1ubuntu1.4USN-8697-1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTScoreutils8.32-4.1ubuntu1.4UBUNTU-CVE-2025-5278
Ubuntu:24.04:LTScoreutils9.4-3ubuntu6.3USN-8697-1
Ubuntu:24.04:LTScoreutils9.4-3ubuntu6.3UBUNTU-CVE-2025-5278
Ubuntu:25.10coreutilsno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2025-5278
Ubuntu:26.04:LTScoreutils9.7-3ubuntu2.1UBUNTU-CVE-2025-5278
Ubuntu:26.04:LTScoreutils9.7-3ubuntu2.1USN-8697-1

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
coreutils 7.2 – before 9.8
Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.17 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 see references
Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.20 see references
Red Hat Cost Management 4 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Discovery 2 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Discovery 2 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Insights proxy 1.5 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 3.10.1 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 see references

Weakness: CWE-121 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L

References