NSF Unidata NetCDF-C NC Variable integer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in NSF Unidata NetCDF-C. It has been rated as very critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component NC Variable Handler. This manipulation causes integer overflow. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-14933. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in NSF Unidata NetCDF-C (version unknown). It has been declared as very critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown function of the component NC Variable Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a integer overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-190. The product performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound, when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This can introduce other weaknesses when the calculation is used for resource management or execution control. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

NSF Unidata NetCDF-C NC Variable Integer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of NSF Unidata NetCDF-C. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of NC variables. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of user-supplied data, which can result in an integer overflow before allocating a buffer. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current user. Was ZDI-CAN-27266.

The advisory is shared at zerodayinitiative.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-14933. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. 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 12/28/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 279808 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-14933), 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 (279808) and EUVD (EUVD-2025-204813). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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Vendor

• NSF Unidata

Name

• NetCDF-C

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

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