Link Following (Symlink)Weakness · CWE-59

CVE-2025-41667

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-07-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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 low privileged remote attacker with file access can replace a critical file used by the arp-preinit script to get read, write and execute access to any file on the device.

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 low-privilege attacker with file access can replace a critical file used by the arp-preinit script on a network device, enabling read, write, and execute access to arbitrary files on the device.

MitigationRestrict file system permissions to prevent unauthorized modification of critical scripts like arp-preinit, and implement integrity verification mechanisms for initialization scripts.

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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. Locate the arp-preinit script
    Search for the arp-preinit file on the system using: find / -name 'arp-preinit' 2>/dev/null or ls -la /etc/init.d/arp-preinit
    Affected if The script exists on the device - vulnerability applies if found
  2. Check file permissions on arp-preinit
    Run ls -la on the found arp-preinit script path to view owner, group, and permission bits
    Affected if Permissions allow write access for non-root users (e.g., world-writable or group-writable with weak group membership)
  3. Identify the critical file the script uses
    Examine the script contents with cat <path_to_arp-preinit> and look for file paths it references or sources
    Affected if The script references a configurable file path that could be replaced by a low-privilege attacker
  4. Check parent directory permissions
    List permissions on the directory containing the arp-preinit script: ls -ld /etc/init.d/ or the parent directory found in step 1
    Affected if The directory is world-writable or allows non-privileged users to create/modify files
  5. Verify script integrity
    Compare the current script against known-good backups, or check file hashes if available, or review the script for unexpected file operations
    Affected if The script references a file that an attacker could replace to gain arbitrary file read/write/execute access

The device is affected if an arp-preinit script exists and either the script itself or the directory containing it has weak permissions allowing a low-privilege attacker to replace critical files it references.

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

Restrict file system permissions to prevent unauthorized modification of critical scripts like arp-preinit, and implement integrity verification mechanisms for initialization scripts.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-41667 — 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-2025-41667 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