CVE-2025-68131 — cbor2
Fix: agronholm/cbor2#268CVE-2025-68131 is a CWE-212 vulnerability in cbor2. A fix is available for cbor2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
CBORDecoder reuse can leak shareable values across decode calls
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-2025-68131.
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
cbor2Real-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
cbor2 provides encoding and decoding for the Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR) serialization format. Starting in version 3.0.0 and prior to version 5.8.0, whhen a CBORDecoder instance is reused across multiple decode operations, values marked with the shareable tag (28) persist in memory and can be accessed by subsequent CBOR messages using the sharedref tag (29). This allows an attacker-controlled message to read data from previously decoded messages if the decoder is reused across trust boundaries. Version 5.8.0 patches the issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | cbor2 | ≥ 3.0.0&&< 5.8.0 | 5.8.0pip install --upgrade 'cbor2==5.8.0' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for cbor2, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update cbor2 to 5.8.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-68131 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-2025-68131 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-68131. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This vulnerability is rated Moderate for Red Hat products. The flaw in cbor2 allows information disclosure if a CBORDecoder instance is reused across trust boundaries. This could lead to an attacker-controlled message reading sensitive data from previously decoded messages. This affects Red Hat AI Inference Server,…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 | rhaiis/vllm-cuda-rhel9:1774351144 | RHSA-2026:5809 |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 | rhaiis/model-opt-cuda-rhel9:1774547384 | RHSA-2026:6761 |
| Red Hat AI Inference Server 3.2 | rhaiis/vllm-rocm-rhel9:1775252598 | RHSA-2026:6762 |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25 | rhoai/odh-vllm-cpu-rhel9:1776259063 | RHSA-2026:10184 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-68131 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-68131 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.