CVE-2025-31498CWE-416

c-ares has a use-after-free in read_answers()

High · published April 8, 2025

CVSS v4.0
8.3
EPSS
1%
Percentile
47.5
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

c-ares is an asynchronous resolver library. From 1.32.3 through 1.34.4, there is a use-after-free in read_answers() when process_answer() may re-enqueue a query either due to a DNS Cookie Failure or when the upstream server does not properly support EDNS, or possibly on TCP queries if the remote closed the connection immediately after a response. If there was an issue trying to put that new transaction on the wire, it would close the connection handle, but read_answers() was still expecting the connection handle to be available to possibly dequeue other responses. In theory a remote attacker might be able to trigger this by flooding the target with ICMP UNREACHABLE packets if they also control the upstream nameserver and can return a result with one of those conditions, this has been untested. Otherwise only a local attacker might be able to change system behavior to make send()/write() return a failure condition. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.34.5.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v4.0
8.3 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
EPSS
0.00590 · 47.5th percentile
Weakness
CWE-416 · Use After Free
Published
2025-04-08T13:53Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 08 APR 13:53Z
    c-ares has a use-after-free in read_answers()
    cvelistv5