CVE-2025-48056Network attack vector

Terminal output manipulation via unescaped flow strings

Published May 20, 2025 · Updated May 20, 2025

Character injection in Cilium Hubble before 1.17.2 allows remote attackers to manipulate Hubble CLI terminal output via Kafka traffic. The non-JSON observe printer writes untrusted flow strings to its terminal writer without escaping control characters, causing terminal escape sequences to be interpreted rather than displayed as data. Exploitation requires Kafka Layer 7 Protocol Visibility and active flow monitoring; injected sequences can conceal or rewrite displayed entries or temporarily disrupt the terminal.

CVSS severity5.3
Medium
EPSS probability0.28%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Character injection in Cilium Hubble before 1.17.2 allows remote attackers to manipulate Hubble CLI terminal output via Kafka traffic. The non-JSON observe printer writes untrusted flow strings to its terminal writer without escaping control characters, causing terminal escape sequences to be interpreted rather than displayed as data. Exploitation requires Kafka Layer 7 Protocol Visibility and active flow monitoring; injected sequences can conceal or rewrite displayed entries or temporarily disrupt the terminal.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-48056
Published
May 20, 2025
Updated
May 20, 2025
Vendor
Cilium
Product
Hubble
Classifications
CWE-74, T1565.002
Attack vector
network
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. May 20, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 20, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=< 1.17.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

Cilium · Hubbleversion=< 1.17.2

Published CVSS scores

5.3GitHub, Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-74Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')
T1565.002Transmitted Data Manipulation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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