CVE-2025-68973 Memory corruption in GnuPG
High 7.8
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68973 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2025-68973 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in GnuPG, published on 28 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-68973 exists.
Affected product: GnuPG. 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-2025-68973/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68973/index.md)
An out-of-bounds write in GnuPG's armor filter allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via crafted input.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-68973?
CVE-2025-68973 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in GnuPG, published on 28 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In GnuPG before 2.4.9, armor_filter in g10/armor.c has two increments of an index variable where one is intended, leading to an out-of-bounds write for crafted input. (For ExtendedLTS, 2.2.51 and later are fixed versions.)
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68973?
It affects 1 product.
Linux distribution packages (40)
gnupg2 AlmaLinux:10 | All versions | 2.4.5-3.el10_1 |
gnupg2-smime AlmaLinux:10 | All versions | 2.4.5-3.el10_1 |
gnupg2 AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 2.2.20-4.el8_10 |
gnupg2-smime AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 2.2.20-4.el8_10 |
gnupg2 AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2-smime AlmaLinux:9 | All versions | 2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.1 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-3.el10_1 |
gnupg2-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.1 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-3.el10_1 |
gnupg2-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.1 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-3.el10_1 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.1 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-3.el10_1 |
gnupg2-smime-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:10.1 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-3.el10_1 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-4.el8_10 |
gnupg2-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-4.el8_10 |
gnupg2-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-4.el8_10 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-4.el8_10 |
gnupg2-smime-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-4.el8_10 |
gnupg2-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2-smime-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2-smime-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos | All versions | 0:2.3.3-5.el9_7 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-2.el10_0.1 |
gnupg2-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-2.el10_0.1 |
gnupg2-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-2.el10_0.1 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-2.el10_0.1 |
gnupg2-smime-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:2.4.5-2.el10_0.1 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.2::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.9-1.el8_2.1 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.2::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.9-1.el8_2.1 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-2.el8_4.1 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-2.el8_4.1 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-3.el8_6.1 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-3.el8_6.1 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.6::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-3.el8_6.1 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.6::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-3.el8_6.1 |
gnupg2 Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-3.el8_8.1 |
gnupg2-smime Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::baseos | All versions | 0:2.2.20-3.el8_8.1 |
gnupg2-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_e4s:9.0::appstream | All versions | 0:2.3.3-2.el9_0.1 |
Products include Gnupg Gnupg.
How do I fix CVE-2025-68973?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2025-68973 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-68973 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in GnuPG
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2025-68973, ALSA-2026:0697, ALSA-2026:0719, ALSA-2026:0728, AZL-73204, AZL-73367 and 52 more.