Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2025-62230

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-10-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 21.1.19 or later.
See remediation →
75/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available

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 flaw was discovered in the X.Org X server’s X Keyboard (Xkb) extension when handling client resource cleanup. The software frees certain data structures without properly detaching related resources, leading to a use-after-free condition. This can cause memory corruption or a crash when affected clients disconnect.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-416

Memory is used after it has been freed, so its contents — now potentially attacker-controlled — drive the program's behaviour. With careful heap grooming this becomes code execution. The fix requires disciplined ownership of memory and often a targeted rework of the object lifecycle.

General guidance for the use after free class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0= 9.0= 10.0
Enterprise Linux AusOperating system
Affected:= 8.2= 8.4= 8.6
Enterprise Linux ElsOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 8.4= 9.4
Enterprise Linux TusOperating system
Affected:= 8.6= 8.8
Enterprise Linux Update Services For Sap SolutionsOperating system
Affected:= 8.6= 8.8= 9.0= 9.2
X ServerApplication
Affected:< 21.1.19

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
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
High

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

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 21.1.19 or later
Fixed in 21.1.19
Vendor patch www.openwall.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

X Server 21.1.19

  1. 1. Identify the current X Server version installed on the system using: `Xorg -version` or `rpm -qa | grep xorg-x11-server`
  2. 2. For RHEL/RHEL-based systems (including EUS, AUS, ELS, Tus, and SAP variants), update the xorg-x11-server package by running: `sudo dnf update xorg-x11-server`
  3. 3. For Debian systems, update the xserver-xorg-core package by running: `sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade xserver-xorg-core`
  4. 4. After updating, verify the new version is 21.1.19 or later using: `Xorg -version`
  5. 5. Restart the X server or reboot the system to ensure the patched version is fully loaded
  6. 6. Test that X keyboard functionality works correctly after the update
Caveat Security patch with potential minor behavioral changes in Xkb extension; test in non-production environment first

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-62230 — 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-2025-62230 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
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