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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2025-15281 json

wordexp with WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND may return uninitialized memory

published 2026-01-20 9 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2026-3385

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 42%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Calling wordexp with WRDE_REUSE in conjunction with WRDE_APPEND in the GNU C Library version 2.0 to version 2.42 may cause the interface to return uninitialized memory in the we_wordv member, which on subsequent calls to wordfree may abort the process.

Patch / fix

  • glibc Debian 12 2.36-9+deb12u14
  • glibc Debian 13 2.41-12+deb13u2
  • glibc Debian 14 2.42-11

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-15281

  • glibc Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 2.35-0ubuntu3.13
  • glibc Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 2.39-0ubuntu8.7
  • glibc Ubuntu 25.10 2.42-0ubuntu3.1
  • glibc Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 2.42-2ubuntu5
  • glibc Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.23-0ubuntu11.3+esm9
  • glibc Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 2.27-3ubuntu1.6+esm6
  • glibc Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 2.31-0ubuntu9.18+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-15281

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • glibc RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10
  • libnsl RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10
  • nss_db RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10
  • nss_hesiod RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10
  • glibc-utils RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10
  • glibc-common RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10
  • glibc-benchtests RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10
  • glibc-gconv-extra RHEL 10.2 2.39-113.el10

red hat advisories RHSA-2026:18139RHSA-2026:7316RHSA-2026:4772RHSA-2026:2786

  • glibc SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS +9 more 2.31-150300.98.1
  • glibc Linux Micro 6.1 2.38-slfo.1.1_6.1
  • glibc Linux Micro 6.0 2.38-11.1
  • glibc SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES 15 SP6-LTSS, SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 +2 more 2.38-150600.14.40.1
  • glibc SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 2.40-160000.3.1
  • glibc SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 2.22-114.43.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:0896-1SUSE-SU-2026:20536-1SUSE-SU-2026:0680-1SUSE-SU-2026:20527-1SUSE-SU-2026:0371-1SUSE-SU-2026:20178-1

  • glibc openSUSE Tumbleweed 2.43-1.1
  • glibc openSUSE Leap 16.0 2.40-160000.3.1
  • glibc-cross-s390x-src openSUSE Leap 16.0 2.40-160000.3.1
  • glibc-cross-aarch64-src openSUSE Leap 16.0 2.40-160000.3.1
  • glibc-cross-ppc64le-src openSUSE Leap 16.0 2.40-160000.3.1
  • glibc-cross-riscv64-src openSUSE Leap 16.0 2.40-160000.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:10662-1openSUSE-SU-2026:20133-1

  • nscd AlmaLinux 8 2.28-251.el8_10.31
  • libnsl AlmaLinux 8 2.28-251.el8_10.31
  • nss_db AlmaLinux 8 2.28-251.el8_10.31
  • glibc-utils AlmaLinux 8 2.28-251.el8_10.31
  • glibc-locale-source AlmaLinux 8 2.28-251.el8_10.31
  • glibc-minimal-langpack AlmaLinux 8 2.28-251.el8_10.31
  • glibc AlmaLinux 9 2.34-231.el9_7.10
  • nscd AlmaLinux 9 2.34-231.el9_7.10

almalinux advisories ALSA-2026:4772ALSA-2026:2786

  • glibc Rocky Linux 8 2.28-251.el8_10.31
  • glibc Rocky Linux 9 2.34-231.el9_7.10

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2026:4772RLSA-2026:2786

  • glibc Azure Linux 3.0 2.38-18
  • glibc CBL-Mariner 2.0 2.35-10

azure linux advisories AZL-74819AZL-75023

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-15281 updated cvss 5.9

glibc: wordexp with WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND may return uninitialized memory

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 nscd, glibc, glibc-utils, compat-glibc, glibc-common Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 nscd, glibc, glibc-utils, compat-glibc, glibc-common Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    affected: workaround, no fix available “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.”
  • Red Hat Cert Manager support for Red Hat OpenShift release 1.18 cert-manager/cert-manager-operator-rhel9 1789029076, cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-rhel9 1791459711, cert-manager/cert-manager-istio-csr-rhel9 1791459759, cert-manager/cert-manager-operator-bundle 1791966259, cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-acmesolver-rhel9 1791459707
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:82354
  • Red Hat Cost Management 4 costmanagement 1770836349
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:3228
  • Red Hat Ceph Storage 8 rhceph 1774002867
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:5606
  • Red Hat Discovery 2 discovery 1773273070, discovery 1773273243
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:4501
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) glibc-utils 2.28-251.el8_10.31, compat-libpthread-nonshared 2.28-251.el8_10.31
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:4772
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) glibc-utils 2.39-113.el10, glibc-locale-source 2.39-113.el10
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:18139
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) nscd 2.28-251.el8_10.31, glibc 2.28-251.el8_10.31, libnsl 2.28-251.el8_10.31, nss_db 2.28-251.el8_10.31, glibc-common 2.28-251.el8_10.31, glibc-gconv-extra 2.28-251.el8_10.31, +3 more
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:4772
show 9 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) glibc 2.34-231.el9_7.10
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:2786
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) glibc 2.39-113.el10, libnsl 2.39-113.el10, glibc-common 2.39-113.el10, glibc-gconv-extra 2.39-113.el10, glibc-all-langpacks 2.39-113.el10, glibc-minimal-langpack 2.39-113.el10
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:18139
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) glibc-static 2.34-231.el9_7.10
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:2786
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 10) nss_db 2.39-113.el10, nss_hesiod 2.39-113.el10, glibc-benchtests 2.39-113.el10
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:18139
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) nss_hesiod 2.28-251.el8_10.31, glibc-benchtests 2.28-251.el8_10.31
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:4772
  • Red Hat Hardened Images glibc 2.42-11.1.hum1, glibc32 2.42-11.1.hum1, glibc-utils 2.42-11.1.hum1, glibc-common 2.42-11.1.hum1, glibc-benchtests 2.42-11.1.hum1, glibc-gconv-extra 2.42-11.1.hum1, +5 more
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:7316
  • Red Hat Insights proxy 1.5 insights-proxy 1773685509
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:4655
  • Red Hat Update Infrastructure 5 rhui5 1773668803, rhui5 1773670073, rhui5 1773670137, rhui5 1773672059
    fixed: vendor fix “To mitigate this issue, consider refactoring the use of the wordexp function to not use the WRDE_REUSE and WRDE_APPEND flags together.” RHSA-2026:4943
  • Red Hat Cost Management 4 costmanagement 1770837277 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) glibc-utils 2.34-231.el9_7.10, glibc-locale-source 2.34-231.el9_7.10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) nscd 2.34-231.el9_7.10, libnsl 2.34-231.el9_7.10, glibc-common 2.34-231.el9_7.10, glibc-gconv-extra 2.34-231.el9_7.10, glibc-all-langpacks 2.34-231.el9_7.10, glibc-minimal-langpack 2.34-231.el9_7.10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) nss_db 2.34-231.el9_7.10, nss_hesiod 2.34-231.el9_7.10, glibc-benchtests 2.34-231.el9_7.10 Red Hat Hardened Images libnsl 2.42-11.1.hum1, nss_db 2.42-11.1.hum1, nss_hesiod 2.42-11.1.hum1, compat-libpthread-nonshared 2.42-11.1.hum1
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
9 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • The GNU C Library glibc

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-908 Use of Uninitialized Resource

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.