CVE-2025-21605 | Redis DoS Vulnerability due to unlimited growth of output buffers abused by unauthenticated client

Redis is an open source, in-memory database that persists on disk. In versions starting at 2.6 and prior to 7.4.3, An unauthenticated client can cause unlimited growth of output buffers, until the server runs out of memory or is killed. By default, the Redis configuration does not limit the output buffer of normal clients (see client-output-buffer-limit). Therefore, the output buffer can grow unlimitedly over time. As a result, the service is exhausted and the memory is unavailable. When password authentication is enabled on the Redis server, but no password is provided, the client can still cause the output buffer to grow from "NOAUTH" responses until the system will run out of memory. This issue has been patched in version 7.4.3. An additional workaround to mitigate this problem without patching the redis-server executable is to block access to prevent unauthenticated users from connecting to Redis. This can be done in different ways. Either using network access control tools like firewalls, iptables, security groups, etc, or enabling TLS and requiring users to authenticate using client side certificates.

Published: 2025-04-23 Last update: 2026-02-10 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21605 is rated Moderate Risk (52.9/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.50%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-21605

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-01 0.76% 0.50% -0.26%
2 2026-05-25 2.09% 0.76% -1.33%
3 2026-05-23 2.09%

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21605

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-21605

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21605

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2025-21605: 3 source package rows (redict, redis, valkey); 96 state rows across 9 repos (3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-community, 3.21-main, 3.22-community, 3.22-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 13, open 83. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2025-21605
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-21605 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 3 source packages (redict, redis, valkey), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-21605
gentoo high CVE-2025-21605: 1 GLSA(s) (202511-05), 2 atom(s) (dev-db/redict, dev-db/redis); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2025-21605
redhat high https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21605
suse high CVE-2025-21605 severity important: SUSE including 26 source package names (8.0.2-2.17:valkey-8.0.2-150600.13.6.1, 8.0.2-8.1:valkey-8.0.2-150600.13.6.1, …), 50 product×package rows across 27 product lines (Container private-registry/harbor-valkey, Container suse/valkey, … (27 product lines)): Fixed 50. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21605/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-21605 medium priority: Ubuntu including 3 source packages (redict, redis, valkey), 24 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 6, needed 6, DNE 5, released 3, needs-triage 2, not-affected 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21605

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21605

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redis redis >= 2.6.0, < 6.2.18 cpe:2.3:a:redis:redis:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redis redis >= 7.0, < 7.2.8 cpe:2.3:a:redis:redis:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redis redis >= 7.4.0, < 7.4.3 cpe:2.3:a:redis:redis:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
lfprojects valkey >= 7.2.4, < 7.2.9 cpe:2.3:a:lfprojects:valkey:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
lfprojects valkey >= 8.0.0, < 8.0.3 cpe:2.3:a:lfprojects:valkey:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
lfprojects valkey >= 8.1.0, < 8.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:lfprojects:valkey:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-21605

cvelogic Threat Intelligence