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Memory Buffer Bounds ErrorWeakness · CWE-119

CVE-2025-5898

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
55/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 vulnerability classified as critical has been found in GNU PSPP 82fb509fb2fedd33e7ac0c46ca99e108bb3bdffb. Affected is the function parse_variables_option of the file utilities/pspp-convert.c. The manipulation leads to out-of-bounds write. The attack needs to be approached locally. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used.

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

An out-of-bounds write vulnerability exists in GNU PSPP's utilities/pspp-convert.c in the parse_variables_option function. The vulnerability allows memory corruption via manipulation of variable parsing, potentially leading to code execution or denial of service.

MitigationApply the latest security patch for GNU PSPP addressing the parse_variables_option function, or rebuild from source with bounds checking added to prevent out-of-bounds memory writes during variable parsing.

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

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. Verify GNU PSPP is installed
    Run command: dpkg -l | grep pspp (Debian/Ubuntu) or rpm -qa | grep pspp (RHEL/CentOS) or which pspp
    Affected if No PSPP package is found - not affected
  2. Check PSPP version
    Run: pspp --version or pspp-convert --version
    Affected if The installed version is older than the patched version containing the fix for parse_variables_option in utilities/pspp-convert.c
  3. Confirm pspp-convert utility presence
    Run: which pspp-convert
    Affected if The utility is not present - not vulnerable since the attack surface does not exist
  4. Identify if variable parsing is used
    Inspect any data conversion workflows or scripts that invoke pspp-convert with variable parsing options
    Affected if The pspp-convert tool is actively used with variable parsing operations - vulnerable code path is reachable
  5. Check for security updates
    Query package manager for installed PSPP security advisories: apt-cache policy pspp (Debian) or yum updateinfo list installed | grep pspp (RHEL)
    Affected if No security update for CVE-2025-5898 is installed - likely vulnerable

A user is affected if they have an unpatched version of GNU PSPP with pspp-convert utility present and actively processing variable parsing operations.

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

Apply the latest security patch for GNU PSPP addressing the parse_variables_option function, or rebuild from source with bounds checking added to prevent out-of-bounds memory writes during variable parsing.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-5898 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
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