CVE-2025-5278

Publication date 27 May 2025

Last updated 31 August 2026

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

A flaw was found in GNU Coreutils. The sort utility's begfield() function is vulnerable to a heap buffer under-read. The program may access memory outside the allocated buffer if a user runs a crafted command using the traditional key format. A malicious input could lead to a crash or leak sensitive data.

Read the notes from the security team

Why is this CVE low priority?

Only results in a crash in a command-line tool

Learn more about Ubuntu priority

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
coreutils	26.04 LTS resolute	Fixed 9.7-3ubuntu2.1
	25.10 questing	Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
	25.04 plucky	Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
	24.10 oracular	Ignored end of life, was needs-triage
	24.04 LTS noble	Fixed 9.4-3ubuntu6.3
	22.04 LTS jammy	Fixed 8.32-4.1ubuntu1.4
	20.04 LTS focal	Needs evaluation
	18.04 LTS bionic	Needs evaluation
	16.04 LTS xenial	Needs evaluation
	14.04 LTS trusty	Needs evaluation

Notes

mdeslaur

This issue is a 1-byte out of bounds read in a command line tool only, resulting in a denial of service

Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
coreutils	Upstream: ?id=8c9

Severity score breakdown

CVSS version: CVSS v3.0

Base score 4.4 · Medium

Base metrics

Parameter	Value
Attack vector	Local
Attack complexity	Low
Privileges required	None
User interaction	Required
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality impact	Low
Integrity impact	None
Availability impact	Low

Scores

Parameter	Value
Base score	4.4 · Medium
Exploitability score	-
Impact score	-