FirebirdSQL Firebird up to 3.0.12/4.0.5/5.0.2 XDR Message null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in FirebirdSQL Firebird up to 3.0.12/4.0.5/5.0.2. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component XDR Message Handler. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-54989. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in FirebirdSQL Firebird up to 3.0.12/4.0.5/5.0.2. It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown function of the component XDR Message Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

Firebird is a relational database. Prior to versions 3.0.13, 4.0.6, and 5.0.3, there is an XDR message parsing NULL pointer dereference denial-of-service vulnerability in Firebird. This specific flaw exists within the parsing of xdr message from client. It leads to NULL pointer dereference and DoS. This issue has been patched in versions 3.0.13, 4.0.6, and 5.0.3.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-54989 since 08/04/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 254445 (Debian dla-4282 : firebird-dev - security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 3.0.13, 4.0.6 or 5.0.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 169da595f8693fc1a65a79c741724b1bc8db9f25 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (254445) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1857). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Firebird Firebird

Productinfo

Type

• Database Administration Software

Vendor

• FirebirdSQL

Name

• Firebird

Version

• 3.0.0
• 3.0.1
• 3.0.2
• 3.0.3
• 3.0.4
• 3.0.5
• 3.0.6
• 3.0.7
• 3.0.8
• 3.0.9
• 3.0.10
• 3.0.11
• 3.0.12
• 4.0.0
• 4.0.1
• 4.0.2
• 4.0.3
• 4.0.4
• 4.0.5
• 5.0.0
• 5.0.1
• 5.0.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/firebird/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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