Summary
Redlib allows a Denial of Service via DEFLATE Decompression Bomb in restore_preferences Form
A vulnerability has been identified in Redlib where an attacker can cause a denial-of-service (DOS) condition by submitting a specially crafted base2048-encoded DEFLATE decompression bomb to the restore_preferences form. This leads to excessive memory consumption and potential system instability, which can be exploited to disrupt Redlib instances. This vulnerability was introduced in 2e95e1fc6e2064ccfae87964b4860bda55eddb9a and fixed in 15147cea8e42f6569a11603d661d71122f6a02dc.
Workarounds
Until a patch is available, users can:
- Implement request size limits at the web server or application level to reject excessively large inputs.
- Disable or restrict the restore_preferences route (
/settings/encoded-restore) at the reverse-proxy level if not required. - Monitor server logs for unusually large or repeated restore_preferences requests and block offending IPs.
Impact
What kind of vulnerability is it? Who is impacted?
This vulnerability allows a remote attacker with network access to exploit the preference restoration mechanism by providing a compressed payload that expands dramatically upon decompression. The issue arises because the system automatically decompresses user-supplied data without enforcing size limits, potentially leading to:
- Out-of-memory (OOM) conditions
- OS-level resource exhaustion, potentially leading to broader system instability or crashes
- Repeated exploitation, keeping the target system in a persistent degraded state
- Denial-of-service of any public instance
Crafted input forces the application to consume excessive CPU, memory, or other resources, degrading or denying service. Typical impact: denial of service.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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See it in your environmentNew to Kodem? Get a demo →Remediation advice
The problem has been patched in 15147cea8e42f6569a11603d661d71122f6a02dc. Users should upgrade to v0.36.0.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2025-30160? CVE-2025-30160 is a high-severity uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in redlib (rust), affecting versions < 0.36.0. It is fixed in 0.36.0. Crafted input forces the application to consume excessive CPU, memory, or other resources, degrading or denying service.
- Which versions of redlib are affected by CVE-2025-30160? redlib (rust) versions < 0.36.0 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2025-30160? Yes. CVE-2025-30160 is fixed in 0.36.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2025-30160 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2025-30160 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2025-30160 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2025-30160? Upgrade
redlibto 0.36.0 or later.