CVE-2025-21605
Reported by github_m · Published April 23, 2025
Redis is an open source, in-memory database that persists on disk. In versions starting at 2.6 and prior to 7.4.3, An unauthenticated client can cause unlimited growth of output buffers, until the server runs out of memory or is killed. By default, the Redis configuration does not limit the output buffer of normal clients (see client-output-buffer-limit). Therefore, the output buffer can grow unlimitedly over time. As a result, the service is exhausted and the memory is unavailable. When password authentication is enabled on the Redis server, but no password is provided, the client can still cause the output buffer to grow from "NOAUTH" responses until the system will run out of memory. This issue has been patched in version 7.4.3. An additional workaround to mitigate this problem without patching the redis-server executable is to block access to prevent unauthenticated users from connecting to Redis. This can be done in different ways. Either using network access control tools like firewalls, iptables, security groups, etc, or enabling TLS and requiring users to authenticate using client side certificates.
Fixed versions
Upgrade to a fixed version or later. Language registries are listed first, then Linux distributions, then vendor products.
| Package | Ecosystem | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| valkey-devel | Amazon Linux | 8.0.2-3.amzn2023.0.1 |
| valkey | Alpine | 7.2.9-r0 |
| valkey | lfprojects | 8.1.1, 8.0.3, 7.2.9 |
| redis | redis | 7.2.8, 6.2.18 |
Risk scores
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| redis | redis | >= 2.6, < 7.4.3 |
| amazon:2023 | valkey-devel | 0 |
| alpine | valkey | 0 |
| chainguard | py3-redis | * |
| wolfi | redis-7.2 | 0 |
| amazon:2023 | valkey | 0 |
| alpine | redis | 0, 0, 0 |
| amazon:2023 | redis6-devel | 0 |
| chainguard | redis-6.2 | 0 |
| alpine | redict | 0 |
| amazon:2023 | redis6 | 0 |
| amazon:2023 | redis6-doc | 0 |
| redis | redis | 2.6 |
| chainguard | redis-7.2 | 0 |
| wolfi | redis-6.2 | 0 |
Timeline
- Apr 23, 2025 CVE Published
- Apr 23, 2025 PoC Published (5 in total, the first dated here)
- Apr 24, 2025 EPSS Score (30 in total, the first dated here)
- Apr 24, 2025 Coalition ESS Score (16 in total, the first dated here)
- Apr 24, 2025 CVE Updated
- Dec 22, 2025 Security Advisory (17 in total, the first dated here)
- Aug 10, 2026 Distribution Patch (12 in total, the first dated here)
Query this with the API
The same record, from the CLI:
vulnetix vdb vuln CVE-2025-21605
vulnetix vdb fixes CVE-2025-21605
Or with curl, using the org id and key from your account page:
curl -s -H "Authorization: ApiKey ${VULNETIX_ORG_ID}:${VULNETIX_API_KEY}" \
"https://api.vdb.vulnetix.com/v2/vuln/CVE-2025-21605/fixes/registry"
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References
- https://github.com/redis/redis/security/advisories/GHSA-r67f-p999-2gff x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/redis/redis/releases/tag/7.4.3 x_refsource_MISC
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-21605-detection-script-memory-exhaustion-vulnerability-in-redis-database url
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-21605-mitigation-script-memory-exhaustion-vulnerability-in-redis-database url
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00014.html advisory
- https://github.com/valkey-io/valkey/releases/tag/8.1.1 fix