CVE-2025-0459 libretro RetroArch Startup profapi.dll untrusted search path
Local attackers can exploit an untrusted search path in RetroArch's startup to load malicious DLLs, potentially executing arbitrary code.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-0459?
CVE-2025-0459 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in libretro RetroArch, published on 14 Jan 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in libretro RetroArch up to 1.19.1 on Windows. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality in the library profapi.dll of the component Startup. The manipulation leads to untrusted search path. An attack has to be approached locally. The vendor was contacted early about this disclosure but did not respond in any way.
Weakness: CWE-426
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-0459?
How do I fix CVE-2025-0459?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-0459 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2025-0459 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-0459 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-x8j8-538p-x6xv.