CVE-2025-15514: Software Security Vulnerability Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-6q56-mrmc-cph4
Share
CVSS 7.5
CWE-395
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2025-15514 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) security vulnerability vulnerability (CWE-395: Use of NullPointerException Catch to Detect NULL Pointer Dereference) affecting Software libraries in the Maven ecosystem. The weakness occurs when catching nullpointerexception should not be used as an alternative to programmatic checks to prevent dereferencing a null pointer.. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2025-15514 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2025-15514
GHSA Identifier GHSA-6q56-mrmc-cph4
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-395: Use of NullPointerException Catch to Detect NULL Pointer Dereference
Affected Product Software
Package Ecosystem Maven
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2025-15514

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Software dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

mvn dependency:tree

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Java application is affected by CVE-2025-15514, inspect your build dependencies using the Maven Dependency Plugin:

mvn dependency:tree

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Software in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than the patched release), your application is affected.

Note: The mvn dependency:tree command inspects the resolved dependency graph declared in your project's POM files; it does not perform automated security scanning or inspect runtime dynamic classpaths. Always verify runtime container classpaths and shaded JARs.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-395: Use of NullPointerException Catch to Detect NULL Pointer Dereference, where catching nullpointerexception should not be used as an alternative to programmatic checks to prevent dereferencing a null pointer. In Software, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

Ollama 0.11.5-rc0 through current version 0.13.5 contain a null pointer dereference vulnerability in the multi-modal model image processing functionality. When processing base64-encoded image data via the /api/chat endpoint, the application fails to validate that the decoded data represents valid media before passing it to the mtmd_helper_bitmap_init_from_buf function. This function can return NULL for malformed input, but the code does not check this return value before dereferencing the pointer in subsequent operations. A remote attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted base64 image data that decodes to invalid media, causing a segmentation fault and crashing the runner process. This results in a denial of service condition where the model becomes unavailable to all users until the service is restarted.

References

NVD — CVE-2025-15514 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-15514
Software Security Information SECURITY
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-15514
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi WEB
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2428828
https//github.com/ollama/... WEB
https://https://github.com/ollama/ollama
huntr.com/bounties/172df98b-0... WEB
https://huntr.com/bounties/172df98b-07cd-41ea-a628-366f8cd525c0
ollama.com WEB
https://ollama.com
Software Security Information SECURITY
https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-15514.json
www.vulncheck.com/advisories/ollama-m... WEB
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/ollama-multi-modal-image-processing-null-pointer-dereference

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-15514?
CVE-2025-15514 is a security vulnerability in Software classified as a security vulnerability vulnerability under CWE-395: Use of NullPointerException Catch to Detect NULL Pointer Dereference.
Which Software versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches.
What version fixes CVE-2025-15514?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2025-15514?
CVE-2025-15514 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2025-15514?
CVE-2025-15514 is classified under CWE-395: Use of NullPointerException Catch to Detect NULL Pointer Dereference (Catching NullPointerException should not be used as an alternative to programmatic checks to prevent dereferencing a null pointer.).
How can I check Maven dependencies for CVE-2025-15514?
Run the dependency tree command: 'mvn dependency:tree'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-6q56-mrmc-cph4",
  "modified" : "2026-06-30T03:35:24Z",
  "published" : "2026-01-13T00:30:46Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2025-15514" ],
  "details" : "Ollama 0.11.5-rc0 through current version 0.13.5 contain a null pointer dereference vulnerability in the multi-modal model image processing functionality. When processing base64-encoded image data via the /api/chat endpoint, the application fails to validate that the decoded data represents valid media before passing it to the mtmd_helper_bitmap_init_from_buf function. This function can return NULL for malformed input, but the code does not check this return value before dereferencing the pointer in subsequent operations. A remote attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted base64 image data that decodes to invalid media, causing a segmentation fault and crashing the runner process. This results in a denial of service condition where the model becomes unavailable to all users until the service is restarted.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-15514"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-15514"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2428828"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://https://github.com/ollama/ollama"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://huntr.com/bounties/172df98b-07cd-41ea-a628-366f8cd525c0"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://ollama.com"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-15514.json"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/ollama-multi-modal-image-processing-null-pointer-dereference"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-395" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : false,
    "github_reviewed_at" : null,
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-01-12T23:15:51Z"
  }
}