CVE-2025-61027: OpenLink Virtuoso 7.2.11 Remote Denial of Service Vulnerability

Technical summary

CVE-2025-61027 is a denial of service vulnerability affecting the t_set_push component of OpenLink Virtuoso Open Source 7.2.11. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of SQL input (CWE-89: SQL Injection), allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to craft malicious SQL statements that trigger unhandled exceptions or resource exhaustion in the server process. The network-accessible nature of the vulnerability (CVSS vector AV:N) combined with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no privilege requirements (PR:N) creates a significant availability risk for exposed Virtuoso instances.

Business impact

Organizations running Virtuoso Open Source 7.2.11 face potential service disruptions affecting all database-dependent applications and business processes. A successful DoS attack could interrupt reporting, analytics, transaction processing, or any other functions relying on the affected Virtuoso instance. Recovery requires manual server restart, potentially causing hours of downtime and data access delays. The ease of exploitation—requiring only network access and no credentials—means this risk extends beyond internal networks if the service is exposed to untrusted networks.

Affected systems

OpenLink Virtuoso Open Source version 7.2.11 is specifically affected. Organizations should verify whether they operate this version in production or development environments. Users of other Virtuoso versions (both older and newer releases) should consult OpenLink's official advisory to determine if their deployments are in scope. The vulnerability does not appear to affect vendor-supplied products based on available information, though this should be confirmed against official vendor documentation.

Exploitability

This vulnerability is highly exploitable due to its network accessibility, lack of authentication requirements, and low attack complexity. An attacker with network access can trigger the denial of service without possessing valid database credentials or internal knowledge of the system. The attack merely requires crafting specific SQL statements and submitting them to the exposed Virtuoso instance. No user interaction or special conditions are needed, making this suitable for both targeted attacks and opportunistic exploitation by automated scanning tools.

Remediation

Organizations should immediately apply patches released by OpenLink for this vulnerability. Verify the patched version number against the official OpenLink Virtuoso advisory. As an interim measure, restrict network access to Virtuoso instances through firewall rules, allowing connections only from trusted application servers and administrative hosts. Implement SQL query logging and monitoring to detect suspicious statement patterns. If patching cannot be completed immediately, consider taking affected instances offline or operating them in isolated network segments until remediation is complete.

Patch guidance

Contact OpenLink directly or consult their official security advisory for the specific patched version addressing CVE-2025-61027. Apply patches first to non-production test environments to validate compatibility with dependent applications and existing database configurations. Establish a maintenance window for production patching to minimize business disruption. After patching, verify that the t_set_push component functions correctly and conduct regression testing of SQL workloads known to exercise that code path. Document the patch version deployed for future audit and compliance purposes.

Detection guidance

Monitor for unusual SQL error patterns or database server crashes that correlate with external connection attempts. Enable detailed SQL query logging to capture statements preceding server failures or performance degradation. Use intrusion detection systems to identify network-based SQL injection patterns targeting Virtuoso instances. Check for error messages or logs mentioning 't_set_push' component failures. Establish baseline metrics for normal CPU and memory usage; anomalous spikes followed by server crashes may indicate DoS exploitation. Regularly scan the network for exposed Virtuoso instances using port enumeration and service identification tools.

Why prioritize this

This vulnerability merits immediate attention due to its HIGH CVSS score (7.5) combined with critical exploitability factors: complete lack of authentication barriers, remote network accessibility, and ease of attack execution. While impact is limited to availability (not confidentiality or integrity), denial of service can cascade into severe business consequences depending on the criticality of database-dependent applications. The low effort required to exploit makes this an attractive target for both sophisticated threat actors and indiscriminate scanning campaigns.

Risk score, explained

The CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 (HIGH) reflects the combination of maximum impact severity for the availability metric (A:H) with minimal barriers to exploitation. The network attack vector (AV:N), low complexity (AC:L), and no privilege requirements (PR:N) indicate this is weaponizable by any attacker with network connectivity. The lack of user interaction requirement (UI:N) and unscoped impact (S:U) further elevate the risk profile. However, the score stops short of CRITICAL because confidentiality and integrity are not affected—the attack is constrained to availability disruption.

Frequently asked questions