Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2019-25072 is a denial-of-service risk in Tendermint's Go RPC client library. A malicious or compromised server can make a client consume excessive resources when processing compressed or oversized response bodies. The business impact is service instability for systems that rely on this client to communicate with untrusted or compromised RPC endpoints.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority availability issue where Tendermint RPC clients support business-critical workflows or connect to external endpoints. It is less urgent for isolated clients that only contact tightly controlled servers, but dependency validation is still warranted because the bundle does not provide precise fixed-version boundaries.
Technical view
The issue is CWE-400 uncontrolled resource consumption in github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/lib/client. The published description cites gzip request-body support and missing response-body size limits, allowing a malicious server to drive high client resource use. CVSS 3.1 is 7.5: network exploitable, low complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, availability impact only.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in Go applications importing the affected Tendermint RPC client package and connecting to RPC servers outside full administrative trust. The bundle does not identify downstream products, exact fixed versions, or CPEs, so asset owners should validate through dependency inventory rather than product-name assumptions.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. The scenario requires a malicious or compromised server interacting with a vulnerable client. The practical risk is denial of service against the client process, not direct confidentiality or integrity compromise based on the supplied CVSS vector.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE description, Go vulnerability entry, and upstream PR/commit references. Do not broaden scope beyond the Tendermint RPC client package without additional source confirmation. Key follow-up is mapping affected module versions to the upstream fix and validating whether deployed clients can be influenced by untrusted servers.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory Go dependencies for github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/lib/client or Tendermint RPC client usage.
- Check Go vulnerability database and Tendermint upstream guidance for the fixed release.
- Upgrade to a release containing the referenced upstream fix commit.
- Avoid relying on untrusted RPC endpoints until the client dependency is validated.
- Monitor client resource usage where Tendermint RPC connections are unavoidable.
Validation and detection
- Review go.mod and dependency lock data for affected Tendermint versions.
- Confirm the deployed dependency includes commit 03085c2da23b179c4a51f59a03cb40aa4e85a613 or a later fixed release.
- Identify services connecting to external or third-party Tendermint RPC servers.
- Check observability data for abnormal memory, CPU, or connection-related client failures.
- Document remediation status and any remaining trusted-endpoint exceptions.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-400: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2019-25072 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.5HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/pull/3430CVE reference
- https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/commit/03085c2da23b179c4a51f59a03cb40aa4e85a613CVE reference
- https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2020-0037CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.