CVE-2020-14354 Use after free in c-ares

Low 3.3 Published 13 May 2021 Updated 4 Aug 2024

An attacker can crash services using c-ares by triggering a use-after-free condition during asynchronous DNS resolution cleanup.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2020-14354?

CVE-2020-14354 is a low-severity use after free vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 13 May 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A possible use-after-free and double-free in c-ares lib version 1.16.0 if ares_destroy() is called prior to ares_getaddrinfo() completing. This flaw possibly allows an attacker to crash the service that uses c-ares lib. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to this service availability.

Weakness: CWE-416, CWE-415, CWE-120

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-14354?

It affects 2 products.

Products include C-Ares C-Ares, Fedoraproject Fedora.

How do I fix CVE-2020-14354?

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-2020-14354 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-14354 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Fedoraproject Fedora vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2020-14354, GHSA-xxmg-3gv9-85h2.