DuckDB up to 1.4.1 memset risky encryption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as problematic has been reported in DuckDB up to 1.4.1. The impacted element is the function memset. The manipulation leads to risky encryption. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2025-64429. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in DuckDB up to 1.4.1. This issue affects the function memset. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a risky encryption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-327. The product uses a broken or risky cryptographic algorithm or protocol. Impacted is confidentiality, and integrity. The summary by CVE is:

DuckDB is a SQL database management system. DuckDB implemented block-based encryption of DB on the filesystem starting with DuckDB 1.4.0. There are a few issues related to this implementation. The DuckDB can fall back to an insecure random number generator (pcg32) to generate cryptographic keys or IVs. When clearing keys from memory, the compiler may remove the memset() and leave sensitive data on the heap. By modifying the database header, an attacker could downgrade the encryption mode from GCM to CTR to bypass integrity checks. There may be a failure to check return value on call to OpenSSL `rand_bytes()`. An attacker could use public IVs to compromise the internal state of RNG and determine the randomly generated key used to encrypt temporary files, get access to cryptographic keys if they have access to process memory (e.g. through memory leak),circumvent GCM integrity checks, and/or influence the OpenSSL random number generator and DuckDB would not be able to detect a failure of the generator. Version 1.4.2 has disabled the insecure random number generator by no longer using the fallback to write to or create databases. Instead, DuckDB will now attempt to install and load the OpenSSL implementation in the `httpfs` extension. DuckDB now uses secure MbedTLS primitive to clear memory as recommended and requires explicit specification of ciphers without integrity checks like CTR on `ATTACH`. Additionally, DuckDB now checks the return code.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-64429 since 11/03/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1600 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 1.4.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying a patch 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.

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• DuckDB

Version

• 1.4.0
• 1.4.1

Website

• Product: https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb/

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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