Denial of service in c-ares

1) Out-of-bounds read

EUVDB-ID: #VU83485

Risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 4.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2020-22217

CWE-ID: CWE-125 - Out-of-bounds read

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to a boundary condition within the ares_parse_soa_reply() function in ares_parse_soa_reply.c. A remote attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read error and crash the application.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

c-ares: 1.16.0 - 1.16.1

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:c-ares_haxx_se:c-ares:1.16.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:c-ares_haxx_se:c-ares:1.16.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

External links

https://github.com/c-ares/c-ares/issues/333
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/09/msg00014.html
https://github.com/c-ares/c-ares/commit/1b98172b141fe874ad43e679e67506f9b2139043

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.