CVE-2026-69186

medium

Description

c-ares is an asynchronous resolver library. Prior to 1.34.7, ares_dns_parse() trusts the attacker-controlled ANCOUNT, NSCOUNT, and ARCOUNT fields before confirming that the DNS response contains enough bytes for the claimed records. Because process_answer() invokes parsing before transaction ID and question validation, a malicious DNS response can cause ares_dns_record_rr_prealloc() and ares_array_set_size() to reserve disproportionate heap memory for a tiny message. Repeated responses create large allocation and release cycles that can degrade or deny name resolution, without causing memory corruption or information disclosure. This issue is fixed in version 1.34.7.

References

https://github.com/c-ares/c-ares/security/advisories/GHSA-jv8r-gqr9-68wj

https://github.com/c-ares/c-ares/releases/tag/v1.34.7

https://github.com/c-ares/c-ares/pull/1134

https://github.com/c-ares/c-ares/commit/eaded4cb200b2a5f8d73f11021ff7c8d6968aaab

https://github.com/c-ares/c-ares/commit/e47c203f91cd8b749c8736bc18d75a31ffdec8f4

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-09-18

Updated: 2026-09-18

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Severity: Medium

CVSS v3

Base Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Severity: Medium

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00524