# CVE-2025-68973: Memory corruption in GnuPG

> An out-of-bounds write in GnuPG's armor filter allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service via crafted input.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 28 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 30 Apr 2026
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2025-68973, ALSA-2026:0697, ALSA-2026:0719, ALSA-2026:0728, AZL-73204, AZL-73367, BELL-CVE-2025-68973, CLSA-2026-1768989383, CLSA-2026-1769015071, CLSA-2026-1769018042, CLSA-2026-1769085200, CLSA-2026-1769162862, CLSA-2026-1769163161, CLSA-2026-1769163825, CLSA-2026-1769171615, CLSA-2026-1769182340, CLSA-2026-1769182554, CLSA-2026-1769426059, CLSA-2026-1769433341, CLSA-2026-1769524269, CLSA-2026-1769679566, CLSA-2026-1770982328, CLSA-2026-1786038406, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68973, DLA-4437-1, ECHO-28ba-d9bf-3b84, GHSA-pj23-86ww-f72p, JLSEC-2026-563, MINI-jj25-4j8g-8w2m, OESA-2026-1072, RHSA-2026:0697, RHSA-2026:0719, RHSA-2026:0728, RHSA-2026:0935, RHSA-2026:0974, RHSA-2026:1014, RHSA-2026:1229, RHSA-2026:1230, RHSA-2026:1468, RHSA-2026:1629, RHSA-2026:1677, RHSA-2026:1705, RHSA-2026:1719, RLSA-2026:0697, RLSA-2026:0719, RLSA-2026:0728, ROOT-OS-ALPINE-319-CVE-2025-68973, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2004-CVE-2025-68973, SUSE-SU-2026:0214-1, SUSE-SU-2026:0215-1, SUSE-SU-2026:0378-1, SUSE-SU-2026:20080-1, SUSE-SU-2026:20108-1, SUSE-SU-2026:20243-1, SUSE-SU-2026:20356-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68973, openSUSE-SU-2026:10001-1, openSUSE-SU-2026:20029-1

## 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.)

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write), CWE-675 (Multiple Operations on Resource in Single-Operation Context)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68973?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `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: Gnupg Gnupg.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-68973?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## 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

- [CVE-2022-3515](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-3515/): Integer overflow in libksba (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2008-1530](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-1530/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2026-24882](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24882/): Memory corruption in GnuPG (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2026-24881](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24881/): Memory corruption in GnuPG (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2020-25125](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-25125/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
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)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68973
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68973
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68973

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68973/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.