Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2025-5917 is a low-severity memory safety bug in libarchive before 3.8.0. A one-byte overflow can occur while building archive entry names, potentially causing crashes or unpredictable behavior. The published CVSS impact is limited to availability, with no stated confidentiality or integrity impact.
Executive priority
Handle through normal patch management. Escalation is not warranted from the provided evidence, but affected enterprise Linux and OpenShift fleets should be tracked because libarchive is commonly embedded in system workflows.
Technical view
The flaw is an off-by-one write overflow in build_ustar_entry_name() within archive_write_set_format_pax.c, related to prefix and suffix handling for filenames. It is classified as CWE-787. Red Hat lists RHEL 8, 9, 10 and OpenShift Container Platform 4 RHCOS as affected; RHEL 6 and 7 status is unknown.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most relevant where applications or system tools use libarchive to create archives with local or user-supplied filenames. The bundle identifies libarchive versions before 3.8.0 and specific Red Hat platforms as affected, but does not prove every downstream package state or deployment exposure.
Exploitation context
The CVE is not in KEV, and the provided sources do not report active exploitation. CVSS indicates local access, low privileges, user interaction, and availability-only impact. Treat it as a hardening and stability issue unless vendor guidance changes.
Researcher notes
The bundle supports a bounded availability concern from a one-byte write overflow, not a demonstrated code execution path. Avoid assuming exploitability beyond the CVSS vector and vendor text. Downstream fixed package details are not included here.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory libarchive package versions across affected Linux and container hosts.
- Upgrade libarchive to 3.8.0 or a vendor-fixed downstream package when available.
- Track Red Hat advisories for RHEL and OpenShift Container Platform remediation status.
- Prioritize systems processing untrusted archive names or user-controlled filesystem paths.
Validation and detection
- Check installed libarchive versions against the vendor advisory and upstream 3.8.0 release.
- Confirm whether RHEL or RHCOS images inherit an affected package build.
- Review applications that create archives from user-controlled filenames.
- Monitor vendor errata for fixed package versions and deployment instructions.
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-787: 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 lookupContainer behavior lookup
The affected technology mentions containers, so container-specific ATT&CK technique review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2025-5917 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
- Low
- CVSS
- 2.8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
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.
SSVC decision data
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:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L1.31.4redhatVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
2.8LowVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- Source timelineredhat
Made public.
- Source timelineredhat
Reported to Red Hat.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-5917CVE reference, redhat · vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2370874CVE reference, redhat · issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/pull/2588CVE reference, redhat
- https://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/releases/tag/v3.8.0CVE reference, redhat
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.
Out-of-bounds Write
Out-of-bounds Write represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.