Vulnerability in ncurses (UBUNTU-CVE-2025-69720)

Summary

Vulnerability in ncurses (UBUNTU-CVE-2025-69720). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm6 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

The infocmp command-line tool in ncurses before 6.5-20251213 has a stack-based buffer overflow in analyze_string in progs/infocmp.c.

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as UBUNTU-CVE-2025-69720 has been found in ncurses.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
What to do: upgrade ncurses to 5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm6 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "ncurses UBUNTU-CVE-2025-69720" on the vendor's site.

UBUNTU-CVE-2025-69720 (ncurses)
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Patched: 5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm6 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in ncurses.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of ncurses.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm6.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'ncurses' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'ncurses' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で ncurses を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade ncurses to 5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm6
```
ステージング環境で 5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm6 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS ncurses

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"5.9+20140118-1ubuntu1+esm6"}]}]

Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS ncurses

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1+esm6"}]}]

Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS ncurses

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"6.1-1ubuntu1.18.04.1+esm3"}]}]

Ubuntu:Pro:20.04:LTS ncurses

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"6.2-0ubuntu2.1+esm1"}]}]

Ubuntu:22.04:LTS ncurses

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"6.3-2ubuntu0.2"}]}]

Ubuntu:24.04:LTS ncurses

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"6.4+20240113-1ubuntu2.1"}]}]

Ubuntu:25.10 ncurses

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"6.5+20250216-2ubuntu0.1"}]}]

References

advisory ubuntu.com
report ubuntu.com
report cve.org
report github.com
report marc.info
report marc.info
report marc.info