A newly disclosed use-after-free vulnerability in Apache NuttX RTOS might permit attackers to trigger system crashes and unintended filesystem operations, prompting pressing safety warnings for customers working network-exposed companies.
The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-48769 and rated reasonable in severity, impacts a variety of NuttX variations and was publicly disclosed on December 31, 2025.
The vulnerability resides within the fs/vfs/fs_rename code of Apache NuttX, a mature real-time embedded working system extensively utilized in 8-bit to 64-bit microcontroller environments.
The safety concern stems from a recursive implementation that makes use of a single buffer with two totally different pointer variables.
Enabling arbitrary user-provided measurement buffer reallocation and write operations to beforehand freed heap chunks.
FieldDetailsCVE IDCVE-2025-48769Vulnerability TypeUse After Free (CWE-416)Affected ProductApache NuttX RTOSAffected ComponentVirtual File System (VFS) – fs/vfs
This use-after-free situation can set off unintended digital filesystem rename and transfer operations, probably resulting in system instability and crashes in particular eventualities.
Customers working digital filesystem-based companies with write entry face a selected danger, particularly when these companies are uncovered over community protocols akin to FTP.
The vulnerability impacts all Apache NuttX RTOS variations from 7.20 via 12.10.0. The Apache NuttX growth staff has launched model 12.11.0, which incorporates complete fixes addressing the safety flaw.
Organizations working affected variations are strongly really helpful to improve instantly to eradicate the danger of exploitation.
The vulnerability was found and reported by Richard Jiayang Liu from the College of Illinois, who additionally contributed to creating the remediation code.
The safety repair underwent rigorous evaluation by NuttX maintainers Xiang Xiao and Jiuzhu Dong earlier than integration into the codebase.
Tomek Cedro from Apache coordinated the disclosure course of, making certain well timed notification and patch availability.
No energetic exploitation has been reported within the wild, although the reasonable severity score underscores the significance of immediate patching.
Organizations unable to right away improve ought to contemplate implementing network-level entry controls to limit write entry to digital filesystem companies.
Specifically, FTP servers, till the safety replace is deployed throughout affected embedded programs and IoT gadgets.
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