CVE-2025-5278 | Coreutils: heap buffer under-read in gnu coreutils sort via key specification

A flaw was found in GNU Coreutils. The sort utility's begfield() function is vulnerable to a heap buffer under-read. The program may access memory outside the allocated buffer if a user runs a crafted command using the traditional key format. A malicious input could lead to a crash or leak sensitive data.

Published: 2025-05-27 Last update: 2026-05-19 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Deferred，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-5278 is rated Low Risk (24.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2025-5278

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 2026-03-23 0.01% 0.06% +0.05%
2 2025-05-28 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-5278

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.8 2.5 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-5278

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-5278

GHSA-ch64-4x3c-w3jq · Severity: medium — A flaw was found in GNU Coreutils. The sort utility's begfield() function is vulnerable to a heap...

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-5278

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-5278 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (coreutils), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-5278
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-5278
suse medium CVE-2025-5278 severity moderate: SUSE including 314 source package names (0.0.17-1.1:coreutils-8.32-150400.9.9.1, 0.1.6-1.2:coreutils-8.32-150400.9.9.1, …), 685 product×package rows across 396 product lines (Container bci/kiwi, Container bci/spack, … (396 product lines)): Fixed 464, Known Affected 221. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-5278/
ubuntu low CVE-2025-5278 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (coreutils), 10 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 8, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-5278

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-5278

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2025-5278

cvelogic Threat Intelligence