Overview
CVE-2025-64332 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting Suricata, a popular network IDS, IPS, and NSM engine. This vulnerability, discovered in the SWF decompression functionality, can lead to a stack overflow, causing Suricata to crash. The vulnerability exists in Suricata versions prior to 7.0.13 and 8.0.2. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could disrupt network monitoring and security operations.
Technical Details
The root cause of CVE-2025-64332 lies in the way Suricata handles SWF (Shockwave Flash) file decompression when the `swf-decompression` feature is enabled. An improperly sized or malicious SWF file can trigger a stack overflow during the decompression process. This occurs because the allocated buffer on the stack is insufficient to store the decompressed data. Suricata versions before 7.0.13 and 8.0.2 are susceptible to this vulnerability.
CVSS Analysis
- Severity: HIGH
- CVSS Score: 7.5
A CVSS score of 7.5 indicates a high severity. While specific exploitability details might vary, the potential for denial-of-service (DoS) caused by the crash is a significant concern.
Possible Impact
Exploitation of CVE-2025-64332 can lead to the following consequences:
- Denial of Service (DoS): A successful exploit will crash the Suricata process, leading to a disruption in network monitoring and intrusion detection capabilities.
- Loss of Visibility: When Suricata crashes, it stops analyzing network traffic, creating a blind spot for potential security threats.
- Potential for Further Exploitation (Less Likely): While primarily a DoS, stack overflows can, in some scenarios, be leveraged for more advanced exploitation techniques, although this is less likely in this particular case.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
The following steps should be taken to mitigate the risk associated with CVE-2025-64332:
- Upgrade Suricata: The most effective solution is to upgrade to Suricata version 7.0.13 or 8.0.2 or later. These versions contain the necessary patch to address the stack overflow vulnerability.
- Disable SWF Decompression: If upgrading is not immediately feasible, disable SWF decompression by setting `swf-decompression: no` in the `suricata.yaml` configuration file. Note that this is the default configuration.
- Limit Decompression Depth: If SWF decompression must be enabled, set `decompress-depth` in `suricata.yaml` to a value lower than half your stack size. However, disabling decompression is the recommended workaround.
- Monitor for Suspicious Activity: Monitor network traffic for unusual patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability.
