# CVE-2025-68381: Packetbeat Improper Bounds Check

> A remote unauthenticated attacker can crash Packetbeat or exhaust resources by sending a crafted UDP packet with an invalid fragment sequence number.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 18 Dec 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9gqx-7h84-8hg2

## What is CVE-2025-68381?

CVE-2025-68381 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Elastic Packetbeat, published on 18 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Improper Bounds Check (CWE-787) in Packetbeat can allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to exploit a Buffer Overflow (CAPEC-100) and reliably crash the application or cause significant resource exhaustion via a single crafted UDP packet with an invalid fragment sequence number.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68381?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Elasticsearch Packetbeat.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-68381?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-68381 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-68381 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68381 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Elastic Packetbeat

- [CVE-2017-11480](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-11480/): Denial of Service in Packetbeat (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-68382](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68382/): Packetbeat Out-of-bounds Read (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2026-26933](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-26933/): Improper Validation of Array Index in Packetbeat Leading to Denial of Service (medium 5.7)
- [CVE-2026-26932](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-26932/): Improper Validation of Array Index in Packetbeat Leading to Denial of Service (medium 5.7)
- [CVE-2025-68388](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68388/): Elasticsearch Packetbeat has Excessive Allocation of Memory and CPU via Malicious IPv4 Fragments (medium 5.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68381 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68381 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Elastic Packetbeat, published on 18 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68381 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Elastic Packetbeat. 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-2025-68381/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68381/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68381
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68381
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68381

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68381/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.