CVE-2025-68431 | libheif has Potential Heap Buffer Over-Read

Exp

libheif is an HEIF and AVIF file format decoder and encoder. Prior to version 1.21.0, a crafted HEIF that exercises the overlay image item path triggers a heap buffer over-read in `HeifPixelImage::overlay()`. The function computes a negative row length (likely from an unclipped overlay rectangle or invalid offsets), which then underflows when converted to `size_t` and is passed to `memcpy`, causing a very large read past the end of the source plane and a crash. Version 1.21.0 contains a patch. As a workaround, avoid decoding images using `iovl` overlay boxes.

Published: 2025-12-29 Last update: 2026-02-25 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-68431 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.04%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2025-68431

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-68431

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 2026-05-27 0.05% 0.04% -0.01%
2 2026-02-26 0.03% 0.05% +0.02%
3 2025-12-30 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-68431

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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: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: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.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/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: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:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 4.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-68431

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-68431

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2025-68431: 1 source package rows (libheif); 16 state rows across 3 repos (3.23-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 3, open 13. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2025-68431
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-68431 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libheif), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-68431
suse medium CVE-2025-68431 severity moderate: SUSE including 33 source package names (2.2.0-4.57:gpg2-2.4.4-slfo.1.1_4.1, 2.2.1-7.2:gpg2-2.4.4-slfo.1.1_4.1, …), 108 product×package rows across 59 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, … (59 product lines)): Fixed 99, First Fixed 9. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-68431/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-68431 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libheif), 7 status rows across 7 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, upstream): released 7. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-68431

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-68431

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
struktur libheif < 1.21.0 cpe:2.3:a:struktur:libheif:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-68431

cvelogic Threat Intelligence