ZephyrOperating system · Zephyrproject

CVE-2025-1673

HIGH · 8.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.0 or later.
See remediation →
91/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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 malicious or malformed DNS packet without a payload can cause an out-of-bounds read, resulting in a crash (denial of service) or an incorrect computation.

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

Out-of-bounds read vulnerability in DNS packet parsing logic when processing malformed DNS packets without a payload, allowing remote attackers to cause denial of service (crash) or incorrect computation.

MitigationImplement proper bounds checking in DNS packet parsing to validate payload existence before memory access, and update to patched versions when available from vendors.

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 data
ZephyrOperating system
Affected:<= 4.0

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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. Confirm Zephyr OS is in use
    Identify if the target system runs Zephyrproject Zephyr as its embedded OS. Check build artifacts, firmware metadata, or system documentation for 'Zephyr' or 'zephyr' references.
    Affected if The system does not run Zephyr OS - then this CVE does not apply
  2. Check Zephyr version
    Determine the installed Zephyr version from build configuration, SDK documentation, or firmware metadata. Compare against the affected range: versions <= 4.0.
    Affected if Running Zephyr version 4.0 or lower - falls within affected range
  3. Verify DNS functionality is enabled
    Inspect the system configuration (devicetree, Kconfig, or build settings) to determine if the DNS client or DNS server module is compiled and active.
    Affected if DNS parsing code is not present or not executed - the vulnerability cannot be triggered
  4. Confirm network packet processing is active
    Check if the network stack is configured to process incoming DNS packets. Look for DNS port (53) listener or DNS resolver initialization in the runtime configuration.
    Affected if Network stack does not process DNS packets - the malformed packet trigger cannot reach the vulnerable code

If the system runs Zephyr <= 4.0 with DNS client or server functionality enabled and network packet processing active, it is affected by this out-of-bounds read vulnerability.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.0
Interim mitigation

Implement proper bounds checking in DNS packet parsing to validate payload existence before memory access, and update to patched versions when available from vendors.

Fix this in Zephyr Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,280
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,648.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-1673 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-1673 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