CVE-2025-31498

Public on 2025-04-08
Modified on 2025-04-10
Description
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.
Severity
Medium severity
Medium
CVSS v3 Base Score
6.5
See breakdown

Affected Packages

Platform Package Release Date Advisory Status
HAQM Linux 1 c-ares Not Affected
HAQM Linux 2 - Core c-ares Not Affected
HAQM Linux 2023 c-ares Not Affected
HAQM Linux 2023 nodejs Not Affected
HAQM Linux 2023 nodejs20 Pending Fix

CVSS Scores

Score Type Score Vector
HAQM Linux CVSSv3 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H