CVE-2025-14932
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 · uneditedNSF Unidata NetCDF-C Time Unit Stack-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of NSF Unidata NetCDF-C. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of time units. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a fixed-length stack-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current user. Was ZDI-CAN-27273.
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 confidenceA stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability exists in NSF Unidata NetCDF-C's time unit parsing function. The parser fails to validate the length of user-supplied data before copying it into a fixed-size stack buffer, allowing attackers to overwrite stack memory and achieve remote code execution through malicious files or web pages.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify NetCDF-C library installationRun 'nc-config --version' or 'nc-config --all' to check if NetCDF-C is installed and get version details. On Linux, also check 'ldconfig -p | grep netcdf' to list linked NetCDF libraries.Affected if NetCDF-C libraries are present on the system and version cannot be determined or shows any version
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Find applications using NetCDFSearch for binaries or applications that link to NetCDF libraries using 'ldd <executable>' or check for NetCDF file associations (.nc, .cdf extensions) in the environment with 'find / -name "*.nc" 2>/dev/null'.Affected if Applications link to libnetcdf or process .nc/.cdf files
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Determine if applications process untrusted NetCDF filesReview application configuration and logs to identify if NetCDF files from untrusted sources (external users, web uploads, network sources) are being parsed automatically.Affected if Applications automatically load or parse NetCDF files from untrusted or external sources
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Inspect network exposure of NetCDF processingCheck if any web-facing or network service application uses NetCDF libraries and accepts file uploads or external data streams. Review application network listeners and file upload handlers.Affected if Network services accept NetCDF files from clients or external sources
Users are affected if NetCDF-C is installed and any application automatically parses NetCDF files from untrusted or external sources without additional validation.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply vendor patches for NetCDF-C to add proper bounds checking in time unit parsing routines. Until patches are available, restrict access to untrusted NetCDF files and disable automatic file loading in vulnerable applications.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-14932 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-14932 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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