Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 23.10 : c-ares vulnerability (USN-6676-1)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 191637

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing a security update.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 16.04 LTS / 18.04 LTS / 20.04 LTS / 22.04 LTS / 23.10 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-6676-1 advisory.

- c-ares is a C library for asynchronous DNS requests. `ares__read_line()` is used to parse local configuration files such as `/etc/resolv.conf`, `/etc/nsswitch.conf`, the `HOSTALIASES` file, and if using a c-ares version prior to 1.27.0, the `/etc/hosts` file. If any of these configuration files has an embedded `NULL` character as the first character in a new line, it can lead to attempting to read memory prior to the start of the given buffer which may result in a crash. This issue is fixed in c-ares 1.27.0.
No known workarounds exist. (CVE-2024-25629)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected libc-ares-dev and / or libc-ares2 packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-6676-1

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 191637

File Name: ubuntu_USN-6676-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 3/6/2024

Updated: 3/6/2024

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.1

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 2.1

Temporal Score: 1.6

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2024-25629

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.4

Temporal Score: 3.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libc-ares2, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libc-ares-dev, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:23.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 3/6/2024

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/23/2024

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2024-25629

USN: 6676-1