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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 27 May 2025.
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2025-27363

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.13.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild 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
An out of bounds write exists in FreeType versions 2.13.0 and below (newer versions of FreeType are not vulnerable) when attempting to parse font subglyph structures related to TrueType GX and variable font files. The vulnerable code assigns a signed short value to an unsigned long and then adds a static value causing it to wrap around and allocate too small of a heap buffer. The code then writes up to 6 signed long integers out of bounds relative to this buffer. This may result in arbitrary code execution. This vulnerability may have been exploited in the wild.

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 confidence

Out-of-bounds write vulnerability in FreeType versions 2.13.0 and below when parsing TrueType GX and variable font subglyph structures. A signed short value assigned to an unsigned long, plus a static value, causes integer wraparound resulting in an undersized heap buffer allocation, allowing up to 6 signed long integers to be written out of bounds.

MitigationUpdate FreeType to a version newer than 2.13.0; until then, avoid processing untrusted TrueType GX or variable font files with vulnerable FreeType versions.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 11.0
FreetypeApplication
Affected:<= 2.13.0

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
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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. Check installed FreeType version
    Run 'freetype-config --version' or check your package manager (dpkg -l freetype* for Debian, or rpm -qi freetype for RHEL-based systems)
    Affected if Version is 2.13.0 or below
  2. Identify FreeType library file
    Locate the libfreetype shared library with 'ldconfig -p | grep freetype' or check /usr/lib*/libfreetype.so*
    Affected if The linked library version is 2.13.0 or below
  3. Determine if TrueType GX or variable font parsing is in use
    Search for .ttf, .otf, or .woff font files on the system, particularly in application font directories; check if applications load variable fonts (fonts with 'gvar' or 'GDEF' tables)
    Affected if The system processes TrueType GX or variable font files using the vulnerable FreeType library
  4. Inspect application font loading behavior
    Review application logs or use process monitoring (strace/ltrace) to see if applications load font files containing GX or variable font tables
    Affected if Applications actively parse subglyph structures in variable fonts

You are affected if FreeType version 2.13.0 or lower is installed AND your system processes TrueType GX or variable font files.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.13.0
Interim mitigation

Update FreeType to a version newer than 2.13.0; until then, avoid processing untrusted TrueType GX or variable font files with vulnerable FreeType versions.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

FreeType 2.13.1 or later (Debian 11 security updates)

  1. 1. Identify the exact FreeType library version currently installed on the system using package manager (e.g., dpkg -l freetype or freetype-config --version)
  2. 2. Check if the installed version is 2.13.0 or below
  3. 3. Upgrade FreeType to the latest available version from the Debian 11 (bullseye) security repositories using: apt update && apt install libfreetype6
  4. 4. Alternatively, compile FreeType 2.13.1 or later from source (available at https://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/)
  5. 5. Restart any services or applications that use FreeType to ensure the updated library is loaded
  6. 6. Verify the new version is installed: freetype-config --version or dpkg -l libfreetype6
Caveat Minimal risk; minor version updates typically maintain API/ABI compatibility

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • 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

Free · runs locally
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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-2025-27363 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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