CVE-2025-9165 | LibTIFF tiffcmp tiffcmp.c InitCCITTFax3 memory leak

Exp

A flaw has been found in LibTIFF 4.7.0. This affects the function _TIFFmallocExt/_TIFFCheckRealloc/TIFFHashSetNew/InitCCITTFax3 of the file tools/tiffcmp.c of the component tiffcmp. Executing manipulation can lead to memory leak. The attack is restricted to local execution. This attack is characterized by high complexity. It is indicated that the exploitability is difficult. The exploit has been published and may be used. There is ongoing doubt regarding the real existence of this vulnerability. This patch is called ed141286a37f6e5ddafb5069347ff5d587e7a4e0. It is best practice to apply a patch to resolve this issue. A researcher disputes the security impact of this issue, because "this is a memory leak on a command line tool that is about to exit anyway". In the reply the project maintainer declares this issue as "a simple 'bug' when leaving the command line tool and (...) not a security issue at all".

Published: 2025-08-19 Last update: 2026-04-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-9165 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). 3 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-2025-9165

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-9165

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 2025-08-20 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-9165

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
1.1 4.0 LOW
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
Attacker needs local access on the target system.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Exploitation depends on constrained or hard-to-reproduce conditions.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:L)
Low privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:L)
Limited availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:P)
Proof-of-concept: public PoC exists; no reported exploitation and no known simplification tools.
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X)
Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X)
Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X)
Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X)
Not evaluated.
 — — [email protected]
2.5 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.0 1.4 [email protected]
1.0 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:H)
Exploitation requires uncommon or highly specific conditions.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 1.5 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-9165

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-9165

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2025-9165: 1 source package rows (tiff); 4 state rows across 4 repos (3.21-main, 3.22-main, 3.23-main, edge-main); fixed 4, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2025-9165
debian unimportant CVE-2025-9165 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (tiff), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-9165
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-9165
suse low CVE-2025-9165 severity low: SUSE including 293 source package names (0.3.2-1.2:libtiff6-4.7.0-150600.3.18.1, 0.6.18-12.30:libtiff6-4.7.0-150600.3.18.1, …), 578 product×package rows across 196 product lines (Container containers/lmcache-vllm-openai, Container containers/open-webui, … (196 product lines)): Fixed 295, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 49, First Fixed 3. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-9165/
ubuntu low CVE-2025-9165 low priority: Ubuntu including 5 source packages (gdal, neuron, qtwebengine-opensource-src, texmaker, tiff), 40 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 21, not-affected 9, released 8, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-9165

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-9165

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libtiff libtiff 4.7.0 cpe:2.3:a:libtiff:libtiff:4.7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-9165

cvelogic Threat Intelligence