CVE-2019-5481 Use after free in curl

What is CVE-2019-5481?

CVE-2019-5481 is a critical use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 16 Sep 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Double-free vulnerability in the FTP-kerberos code in cURL 7.52.0 to 7.65.3.

Weakness: CWE-415

Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-5481?

It affects 12 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Haxx Curl, Netapp Cloud Backup, Netapp Solidfire Baseboard Management Controller Firmware, Netapp Steelstore and 6 more.

How do I fix CVE-2019-5481?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2019-5481 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-5481 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

• CVE-2015-3306 ProFTPD Improper Access Control Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2025-49113 RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data Exploited Critical 9.9
• CVE-2026-24061 GNU InetUtils Argument Injection Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2025-39682 Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2024-9680 Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free Exploited Critical 9.8

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2019-5481, CLEANSTART-2026-PT59382, CURL-CVE-2019-5481, DEBIAN-CVE-2019-5481, GHSA-hr98-frg6-wvvr, UBUNTU-CVE-2019-5481.