CVE-2019-25620 in Tree Studio
Summary
by MITRE • 03/23/2026
Tree Studio 2.17 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows local attackers to crash the application by providing malformed input through the keyboard interface. Attackers can trigger the vulnerability by entering arbitrary characters during application runtime, causing the application to become unresponsive or terminate abnormally.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/27/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-25620 affects Tree Studio version 2.17 and represents a critical denial of service weakness that can be exploited by local attackers to compromise application stability. This flaw resides within the application's keyboard input handling mechanism, where insufficient validation of user-provided data leads to application instability. The vulnerability manifests when attackers input malformed or arbitrary character sequences through the keyboard interface during normal application operation, resulting in system crashes or abnormal termination events that disrupt legitimate user activities.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability demonstrates characteristics consistent with CWE-129 Input Validation and CWE-20 Improper Input Validation, where the application fails to properly sanitize or validate keyboard input before processing. The flaw operates at the application layer where user input flows directly into processing routines without adequate defensive measures such as input length restrictions, character set validation, or exception handling mechanisms. When malformed input reaches the keyboard event handlers, the application's state management becomes compromised, leading to memory corruption or execution flow disruption that ultimately results in application termination or unresponsiveness.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service interruption as it provides local attackers with a reliable method to disrupt legitimate application usage. Since the vulnerability can be triggered through normal keyboard interaction, it does not require specialized tools or network access, making it particularly dangerous in environments where multiple users share the same system. The attack surface is broad as any user with access to the application can potentially exploit this weakness, creating risks for both individual productivity and system availability in shared computing environments. Organizations utilizing Tree Studio for critical tasks may experience operational disruptions that could affect workflow continuity and data processing activities.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2019-25620 should focus on implementing robust input validation mechanisms within the application's keyboard handling routines. The most effective approach involves establishing strict character set limitations and length constraints for keyboard input, combined with comprehensive exception handling that prevents malformed input from causing application crashes. Security patches should incorporate defensive programming practices such as input sanitization, buffer overflow protection, and graceful error recovery mechanisms. Additionally, implementing monitoring and logging of keyboard input events can help detect anomalous patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter for identifying potential abuse of application interfaces. Organizations should prioritize updating to patched versions of Tree Studio and consider implementing application whitelisting controls to limit the impact of potential exploitation attempts.