GNU Coreutils 7.2 Key Specification heap-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in GNU Coreutils 7.2. This affects an unknown part of the component Key Specification. Performing a manipulation results in heap-based overflow. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2025-5278. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in GNU Coreutils 7.2. It has been classified as critical. This affects some unknown functionality of the component Key Specification. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a heap-based overflow vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-122. A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc(). This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A flaw was found in GNU Coreutils. The sort utility's begfield() function is vulnerable to a heap buffer under-read. The program may access memory outside the allocated buffer if a user runs a crafted command using the traditional key format. A malicious input could lead to a crash or leak sensitive data.

The advisory is shared at bugzilla.redhat.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-5278. The exploitability is told to be easy. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 04/20/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 237938 (Fedora 41 : coreutils (2025-f344084b93)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (237938), EUVD (EUVD-2025-16308) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1118). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain OS

Productinfo

Vendor

• GNU

Name

• Coreutils

Version

• 7.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.gnu.org/

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CPE 2.2info

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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