Memory Buffer Bounds ErrorWeakness · CWE-119

CVE-2018-25109

MEDIUM · 6.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
69/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A vulnerability has been found in Nintendo Animal Crossing, Doubutsu no Mori+ and Doubutsu no Mori e+ 1.00/1.01 on GameCube and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component Letter Trigram Handler. The manipulation leads to memory corruption. It is possible to launch the attack on the physical device. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

A memory corruption vulnerability exists in the Letter Trigram Handler component of Nintendo Animal Crossing and Doubutsu no Mori e+ for GameCube. The vulnerability allows memory corruption through unknown functionality in the letter handling system and requires physical access to the device to exploit. Public exploit code exists.

MitigationSince this is a legacy GameCube game with no vendor patch available, physical security of the console and avoidance of untrusted save data or external inputs are the primary mitigations. Users should avoid connecting the device to untrusted networks or using modified save files.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Physical
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if you own or use the affected game
    Check your GameCube game library for 'Animal Crossing' (North America/Europe) or 'Doubutsu no Mori e+' (Japan). These are the only two titles affected by this CVE.
    Affected if You have either Animal Crossing (GameCube) or Doubutsu no Mori e+ for GameCube.
  2. Determine the game region version
    Check the label on your game disc or the game case. The vulnerability affects only the original Animal Crossing and Doubutsu no Mori e+ releases, not later versions or re-releases.
    Affected if Your disc is labeled 'Animal Crossing' (NTSC-U/PAL) or 'Doubutsu no Mori e+' (NTSC-J).
  3. Assess physical access to your GameCube console
    Consider who has physical access to the GameCube console where this game is played. The CVE requires physical access to exploit.
    Affected if Untrusted individuals can physically access the GameCube console or the game disc.
  4. Evaluate your use of save data
    Reflect on whether you use modified save files, custom patterns, or save data from untrusted sources for this game. The vulnerability is triggered through the letter handling system.
    Affected if You import save data or patterns from untrusted sources into your Animal Crossing game.

You are affected if you own Animal Crossing (GameCube) or Doubutsu no Mori e+ and your console is accessible to untrusted individuals or you use untrusted save data.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Since this is a legacy GameCube game with no vendor patch available, physical security of the console and avoidance of untrusted save data or external inputs are the primary mitigations. Users should avoid connecting the device to untrusted networks or using modified save files.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-25109 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data