CVE-2025-1403
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to cause denial of service by sending maliciously crafted QPY files to Qiskit applications. The malformed symengine serialization stream triggers a segmentation fault in the symengine library, crashing the application. This affects all users running vulnerable Qiskit SDK versions that process QPY files from untrusted sources.
💻 Affected Systems
- Qiskit SDK
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete service disruption through application crashes, potentially affecting quantum computing workflows and dependent systems.
Likely Case
Intermittent application crashes when processing malicious QPY files, leading to service interruptions and data loss in active quantum computing sessions.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper input validation and file source restrictions in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires crafting a malicious QPY file and getting it processed by a vulnerable Qiskit application. No authentication bypass is needed if the application accepts external QPY files.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Qiskit 1.2.5 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7183868
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Update Qiskit using pip: pip install --upgrade qiskit>=1.2.5
2. Verify the update completed successfully
3. No restart required as this is a Python library update
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict QPY file sources
allOnly allow QPY files from trusted, verified sources. Implement input validation for QPY files.
Disable QPY file processing
allIf QPY functionality is not required, disable or restrict QPY file processing in the application.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict input validation for all QPY files, rejecting malformed or suspicious files
- Isolate Qiskit applications in containers or sandboxes to limit crash impact
- Monitor for application crashes and segfaults in system logs
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Qiskit version: python -c "import qiskit; print(qiskit.__version__)" - if version is between 0.45.0 and 1.2.4 inclusive, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
python -c "import qiskit; print(qiskit.__version__)"Verify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify version is 1.2.5 or higher using the same command.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Segmentation fault errors in application logs
- Unexpected Qiskit application crashes
- Error messages related to symengine or QPY parsing
Network Indicators:
- Unusual QPY file uploads to quantum computing services
- Multiple failed QPY processing attempts
SIEM Query:
source="application.logs" AND ("segmentation fault" OR "segfault" OR "qiskit crash" OR "symengine error")