PT-2025-15436 · C-Ares+5 · C-Ares+5

Published

2025-04-08

·

Updated

2025-11-18

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CVE-2025-31498

CVSS v4.0

8.3

High

VectorAV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions c-ares versions 1.32.3 through 1.34.4 Node.js versions prior to 22.15.0
Description A use-after-free vulnerability exists in the read answers() function of c-ares, a library used for asynchronous DNS resolution. This occurs when process answer() may re-enqueue a query due to a DNS Cookie Failure or if the upstream server does not properly support EDNS, or potentially on TCP queries if the remote connection is closed immediately after a response. If an issue occurs while attempting to place the new transaction on the wire, the connection handle is closed, but read answers() still expects it to be available. A remote attacker could potentially exploit this by flooding the target with ICMP UNREACHABLE packets if they control the upstream nameserver, or a local attacker could manipulate system behavior to cause send() or write() to return a failure condition. This vulnerability is addressed in c-ares version 1.34.5.
Recommendations Update c-ares to version 1.34.5 or later. Update Node.js to version 22.15.0 or later.

Exploit

Fix

RCE

DoS

Use After Free

Weakness Enumeration

Related Identifiers

ALSA-2025:4459
ALSA-2025:4461
ALSA-2025:7426
ALSA-2025:7433
ALSA-2025:7502
AZL-59742
BDU:2025-04858
CESA-2025_4459
CESA-2025_4461
CVE-2025-31498
ECHO-6BDE-78E8-D894
GHSA-6HXC-62JH-P29V
INFSA-2025_4459
INFSA-2025_4461
INFSA-2025_7426
INFSA-2025_7433
OPENSUSE-SU-2025:14977-1
RHSA-2025:4459
RHSA-2025:4461
RHSA-2025:7426
RHSA-2025:7433
RHSA-2025:7502
RHSA-2025:7537
RHSA-2025_4459
RHSA-2025_4461
RHSA-2025_7426
RHSA-2025_7433
USN-7477-1

Affected Products

Almalinux
Centos
Red Hat
Rocky Linux
Ubuntu
C-Ares