# CVE-2025-60753: Denial of service in n/a

> Crafted substitution rules in libarchive bsdtar cause unbounded memory allocation, leading to an Out-of-Memory crash and denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 5 Nov 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Nov 2025
- **Also known as:** AZL-69866, AZL-69893, BELL-CVE-2025-60753, CLSA-2026-1778893359, CLSA-2026-1778894153, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-60753, ECHO-332c-d1f1-fb8f, GHSA-qm3h-46xc-w7w4, JLSEC-2026-153, MINI-8r8r-8wqc-c7x4, OESA-2025-2761, OESA-2025-2762, OESA-2025-2784, OESA-2025-2785, OESA-2025-2786, OESA-2025-2787, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-60753

## What is CVE-2025-60753?

CVE-2025-60753 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Libarchive Libarchive, published on 5 Nov 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in libarchive bsdtar before version 3.8.1 in function apply_substitution in file tar/subst.c when processing crafted -s substitution rules. This can cause unbounded memory allocation and lead to denial of service (Out-of-Memory crash).

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-60753?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Libarchive Libarchive.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-60753?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2025-60753 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-60753 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in Libarchive Libarchive

- [CVE-2024-37407](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-37407/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2016-1541](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1541/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2016-6250](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6250/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2025-5914](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-5914/): Libarchive: double free at archive_read_format_rar_seek_data() in archive_read_support_format_rar.c (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2024-48957](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-48957/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-60753 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-60753 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Libarchive Libarchive, published on 5 Nov 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-60753 exists.

Affected product: Libarchive Libarchive. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-60753/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-60753/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-60753
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-60753
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-60753

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-60753/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.