CVE-2025-30216: Critical Heap Overflow in NASA CryptoLib TM

CVE-2025-30216 is a critical (CVSS 9.4) heap overflow in NASA CryptoLib 1.3.3 and earlier. In Crypto_TM_ProcessSecurity, a telemetry packet whose secondary header length exceeds the packet length causes an out-of-bounds copy. The advisory lists no patched release, so check it.

What's affected

The record and the project advisory list NASA CryptoLib versions 1.3.3 and prior as affected. CryptoLib is a software only implementation of the CCSDS Space Data Link Security Protocol, Extended Procedures (SDLS-EP), used to secure links between a spacecraft running the core Flight System (cFS) and a ground station.

The advisory page I reviewed shows no patched release version. The record links to a fix commit for some of these issues, but a commit is not a release. Check the CryptoLib releases page and the advisory for the first fixed release before you decide that you are covered.

The record does not flag this CVE as known exploited (not in the CISA KEV catalog at the time of writing).

How to check if you're exposed

CryptoLib is usually built from source and linked into flight or ground software, so there may be no package manager entry to query.

1. Search your build tree and your software bill of materials for CryptoLib, and note the version or commit you build from.
2. If you vendor the source, look at the git history for the project's fix commit and see whether it is included in your tree.
3. List every program that links the library and receives frames from a radio link, simulator or test harness.

Safeguard's free in-browser dependency scan at gold.safeguard.sh/scan can show whether a project's dependency list includes an affected component, and the Gold directory lets you look up the CVE and its related weaknesses.

What to do now

1. Find every build that includes CryptoLib 1.3.3 or earlier, including ground segment tools and test benches.
2. Check the CryptoLib advisory and releases for a fixed version, or for the fix commit referenced in the record, and plan the update.
3. Until you have a fix, validate frame length fields and header sizes in your own code before passing frames to CryptoLib, and drop frames that fail those checks.
4. Run the affected components with the least privilege your platform allows, and keep them away from networks that untrusted parties can reach.
5. Add fuzz tests for frame parsing to your pipeline, since the advisories describe issues found that way.

Why it matters

The record maps the flaw to CWE-122 (Heap-based Buffer Overflow) and CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write). The advisory explains that the code allocates a buffer sized to the received packet, then copies the six byte primary header plus the secondary header length taken from the packet into it. Nothing checks that the sum fits inside the allocation.

An attacker who controls the secondary header length field can make the copy larger than the buffer, which overwrites neighboring heap memory. The effects range from crashes to, in theory, code execution.

The lesson is the same as for the other CryptoLib issues: any size read from the wire must be compared with the real size of the data before it is used for copying. This case is the telemetry (TM) path, while the other CVEs in the family cover telecommand and AOS paths, so teams that use only one frame type should still check them all.

Quick check

Sources

• GitHub security advisory
• Fix commit referenced by the record

Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.