What is CVE-2025-15281?

CVE-2025-15281 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Glibc, classified under Use of Uninitialized Resource. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-01-20.

How severe is CVE-2025-15281?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in GNU Glibc

CVE-2025-15281

Calling wordexp with WRDE_REUSE in conjunction with WRDE_APPEND in the GNU C Library version 2.0 to version 2.42 may cause the interface to return uninitialized memory in the we_wordv member, which on subsequent calls to wordfree may abort the process.

Published 2026-01-20 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (40.3th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 40th percentile — 40.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: +0.000

Affected products

GNU Glibc
The GNU C Library Glibc — versions 2.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-908 — Use of Uninitialized Resource

References

3ff69d7a-14f2-4f67-a097-88dee7810d18 (Patch, Issue Tracking)
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-15281?: CVE-2025-15281 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNU Glibc, classified under Use of Uninitialized Resource. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-01-20.
How severe is CVE-2025-15281?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.