CVE-2025-14935
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 Dimension Name Heap-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 dimension names. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of the length of user-supplied data prior to copying it to a fixed-length heap-based buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current user. Was ZDI-CAN-27168.
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 · high confidenceA heap-based buffer overflow exists in NSF Unidata NetCDF-C's dimension name parsing logic. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied dimension name length before copying data into a fixed-size heap buffer, allowing remote code execution when a user opens a malicious NetCDF file.
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 if NetCDF-C is installedRun command: 'nc-config --version' or 'pkg-config --modversion netcdf' on Linux; on Windows check for netcdf.dll in system directories or application binsAffected if NetCDF-C library is present on the system
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Determine the NetCDF-C versionExecute 'nc-config --version' or check the library file properties; compare the version string against the vendor's release notes for CVE-2025-14935Affected if Any version of NetCDF-C is installed since all versions are affected per the CVE advisory
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Verify if applications process NetCDF filesSearch application logs, code, or configuration for NetCDF file operations (NC_OPEN, NC_CREATE functions) or look for .nc file extensions in data processing workflowsAffected if The system or any application opens, reads, or processes NetCDF files using NetCDF-C library
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Check for untrusted file processingReview whether NetCDF files from external or untrusted sources are processed; examine file upload handling, data ingestion pipelines, or user-supplied file pathsAffected if NetCDF files from untrusted or external sources are opened by the NetCDF-C library
The environment is affected if NetCDF-C is installed AND the system processes NetCDF files (especially from untrusted sources), since all versions contain the heap-based buffer overflow in dimension name parsing.
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 when available; validate NetCDF files through sandboxed analysis before processing; restrict processing of untrusted NetCDF data to isolated environments.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-14935 — 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-2025-14935 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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- 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
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