CVE-2025-5987
CVE Details
Visit the official vulnerability details page for CVE-2025-5987 to learn more.
Initial Publication
06/27/2025
Last Update
09/17/2025
Third Party Dependency
libssh-4
NIST CVE Summary
A flaw was found in libssh when using the ChaCha20 cipher with the OpenSSL library. If an attacker manages to exhaust the heap space, this error is not detected and may lead to libssh using a partially initialized cipher context. This occurs because the OpenSSL error code returned aliases with the SSH_OK code, resulting in libssh not properly detecting the error returned by the OpenSSL library. This issue can lead to undefined behavior, including compromised data confidentiality and integrity or crashes.
CVE Severity
Our Official Summary
This is a cipher initialization vulnerability in libssh when using the ChaCha20 cipher with the OpenSSL library. If an attacker manages to exhaust the heap space, this error is not properly detected due to OpenSSL error codes aliasing with SSH_OK codes, leading to libssh using a partially initialized cipher context. This results in undefined behavior that can compromise data confidentiality and integrity or cause application crashes.
The vulnerability affects multiple components across both Vertex and Palette products. However, successful exploitation requires specific conditions including heap exhaustion attacks combined with ChaCha20 cipher usage, which are difficult to achieve in containerized environments with resource limits and memory management controls.
The risk of exploitation is considered low to medium, as it requires an attacker to both trigger heap exhaustion conditions and have the target system specifically using ChaCha20 cipher for SSH connections.
Upstream patches addressing this issue will be incorporated when they become available.
Status
Ongoing
Affected Products & Versions
| Version | Palette Enterprise | Palette Enterprise Airgap | VerteX | VerteX Airgap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.7.16 | ⚠️ Impacted | ✅ No Impact | ⚠️ Impacted | ✅ No Impact |
| 4.6.41 | ⚠️ Impacted | ✅ No Impact | ⚠️ Impacted | ⚠️ Impacted |
Revision History
| Date | Revision |
|---|---|
| 09/17/2025 | Status changed from Open to Ongoing |
| 09/17/2025 | Official summary added |
| 08/23/2025 | Advisory severity revised to HIGH from MEDIUM |
| 07/08/2025 | Advisory assigned with MEDIUM severity |