GNU C Library up to 2.38 Environment Variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH untrusted search path

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in GNU C Library up to 2.38. It has been classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component Environment Variable Handler. The manipulation of the argument LD_LIBRARY_PATH leads to untrusted search path. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-4802. An attack has to be approached locally. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in GNU C Library up to 2.38. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects an unknown code block of the component Environment Variable Handler. The manipulation of the argument LD_LIBRARY_PATH with an unknown input leads to a untrusted search path vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-426. The product searches for critical resources using an externally-supplied search path that can point to resources that are not under the product's direct control. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Untrusted LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable vulnerability in the GNU C Library version 2.27 to 2.38 allows attacker controlled loading of dynamically shared library in statically compiled setuid binaries that call dlopen (including internal dlopen calls after setlocale or calls to NSS functions such as getaddrinfo).

It is possible to read the advisory at sourceware.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-4802 since 05/15/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Attacking locally is a requirement. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1574 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 237287 (SUSE SLED15 / SLES15 / openSUSE 15 Security Update : glibc (SUSE-SU-2025:01702-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 2.39 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying a patch is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at sourceware.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (237287), EUVD (EUVD-2025-15553) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1089). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Gentoo Linux
• IGEL OS
• IBM MQ
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• Open Source GNU libc
• Red Hat OpenShift
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• IBM App Connect Enterprise

Productinfo

Type

• Software Library

Vendor

• GNU

Name

• C Library

Version

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 2.2
• 2.3
• 2.4
• 2.5
• 2.6
• 2.7
• 2.8
• 2.9
• 2.10
• 2.11
• 2.12
• 2.13
• 2.14
• 2.15
• 2.16
• 2.17
• 2.18
• 2.19
• 2.20
• 2.21
• 2.22
• 2.23
• 2.24
• 2.25
• 2.26
• 2.27
• 2.28
• 2.29
• 2.30
• 2.31
• 2.32
• 2.33
• 2.34
• 2.35
• 2.36
• 2.37
• 2.38

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.gnu.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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Exploitinginfo

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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