CVE-2025-53009 — materialx
Fix: AcademySoftwareFoundation/MaterialX#2505CVE-2025-53009 is a CWE-121 vulnerability in materialx. A fix is available for materialx — see the affected versions and patch details below.
MaterialX Stack Overflow via Lack of MTLX XML Parsing Recursion Limit
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-53009.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
materialxReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
When parsing an MTLX file with multiple nested nodegraph implementations, the MaterialX XML parsing logic can potentially crash due to stack exhaustion.
Details
By specification, multiple kinds of elements in MTLX support nesting other elements, such as in the case of nodegraph elements. Parsing these subtrees is implemented via recursion, and since there is no max depth imposed on the XML document, this can lead to a stack overflow when the library parses an MTLX file with an excessively high number of nested elements.
PoC
Please download the recursion_overflow.mtlx file from the following link:
https://github.com/ShielderSec/poc/tree/main/CVE-2025-53009
build/bin/MaterialXView --material recursion_overflow.mtlx
Impact
An attacker could intentionally crash a target program that uses MaterialX by sending a malicious MTLX file.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | materialx | ≥ 1.39.2&&< 1.39.3 | 1.39.3pip install --upgrade 'materialx==1.39.3' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for materialx, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update materialx to 1.39.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-53009 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2025-53009 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-53009. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-53009 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-53009 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.