CVE-2025-1403 Qiskit SDK denial of service
A remote attacker can cause a denial of service in Qiskit SDK by submitting a maliciously crafted QPY file that triggers a segmentation fault.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-1403?
CVE-2025-1403 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in IBM Qiskit SDK, published on 21 Feb 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Qiskit SDK 0.45.0 through 1.2.4 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service using a maliciously crafted QPY file containing a malformed symengine serialization stream which can cause a segfault within the symengine library.
Weakness: CWE-502
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-1403?
6 open source packages ship an affected version, including qiskit and qiskit-terra. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
qiskit PyPI | From 0.45.0 | 1.3.0 |
qiskit PyPI | From 0.45.0 | 1.3.0 |
qiskit PyPI | From 0.45.0 | 1.3.0 |
qiskit-terra PyPI | From 0.45.0 to 0.46.3 | None |
qiskit-terra PyPI | From 0.45.0 to 0.46.3 | None |
qiskit-terra PyPI | From 0.45.0 to 0.46.3 | None |
Products include Ibm Qiskit.
How do I fix CVE-2025-1403?
Upgrade qiskit to 1.3.0 or later.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2025-1403 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-1403 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in IBM Qiskit SDK
Sources
Also known as GHSA-fpmr-m242-xm7x, PYSEC-2026-1859, PYSEC-2026-3045.