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CentOS 9 : libevent-2.1.13-1.el9

critical Nessus Plugin ID 348807

Synopsis

The remote CentOS host is missing one or more security updates for libevent.

Description

The remote CentOS Linux 9 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the libevent-2.1.13-1.el9 build changelog.

 - Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has a heap out-of- bounds write in bufferevent_sock.c when bufferevent_socket_set_conn_address_ copies a kernel-supplied AF_UNIX peer address into bufferevent_private.conn_address. Release builds compiled with NDEBUG disable the EVUTIL_ASSERT length guard, and the evhttp accept path can pass a 110-byte sockaddr from accept() into the 28-byte field. An unauthenticated local peer able to connect to an AF_UNIX listener can overwrite the adjacent dns_request pointer and heap data, causing memory corruption with confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha. (CVE-2026-63388)

 - Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has an off-by-one stack buffer overflow in evdns.c when dnsname_to_labels formats a name-bearing DNS record at the end of the 64 KB stack buffer allocated by evdns_server_request_format_response. The final-label check permits j plus label_len plus one to equal buf_len, after which the terminating null byte is written to buf[buf_len]. A crafted DNS server response containing PTR, CNAME, MX, NS, or SOA data can trigger the one-byte out-of-bounds write and crash or corrupt the process. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha. (CVE-2026-63387)

 - Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent processes chunked HTTP trailers in http.c through evhttp_read_trailer and merges them into request headers. The fix introduces evhttp_parse_headers_impl_ and a temporary trailer header list. An unauthenticated remote attacker can place security-sensitive fields in trailers so that an upstream proxy and the libevent application interpret different effective headers, enabling header smuggling, authorization bypass, proxy- header spoofing, or cache poisoning. The fix parses trailers into a temporary header list and discards them instead of merging them into req->input_headers. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha. (CVE-2026-63379)

 - Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, libevent has a use-after-free in buffer.c when evbuffer_add_buffer_reference processes an output buffer whose out_total_len is zero.
 evbuffer_free_all_chains frees the initial empty chain without resetting outbuf->first, outbuf->last, or outbuf->last_with_datap, and APPEND_CHAIN_MULTICAST subsequently dereferences the dangling chain pointer.
 A caller that can drive this buffer state can cause memory corruption or a process crash. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha. (CVE-2026-63381)

 - Libevent is an event notification library. Prior to 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha, the libevent evhttp parser in http.c inconsistently handles duplicate Transfer-Encoding headers, comma-separated Transfer-Encoding values, and bare line feeds in chunked framing. evhttp_find_header can select only the first header, evhttp_check_transfer_encoding_ was absent so the previous whole-string comparison fails to recognize valid lists ending in chunked, and evhttp_handle_chunked_read uses EVBUFFER_EOL_CRLF rather than EVBUFFER_EOL_CRLF_STRICT, accepting bare LF chunk terminators. When libevent is deployed behind a proxy that frames the same request differently, an unauthenticated remote attacker can desynchronize request boundaries and smuggle a second request, potentially bypassing access controls or poisoning caches. This issue is fixed in versions 2.1.13 and 2.2.2-alpha. (CVE-2026-63382)

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

Solution

Update the CentOS 9 Stream libevent package.

See Also

https://kojihub.stream.centos.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=129878

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 348807

File Name: centos9_libevent-2_1_13-1_129878.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Published: 9/22/2026

Updated: 9/22/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.9

Percentile: 58.17

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9

Temporal Score: 6.7

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-63387

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.4

Temporal Score: 7.3

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

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-63388

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.2

Threat Score: 7.1

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:U

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-63385

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:centos:centos:9, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:libevent-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:libevent-doc, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:libevent

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/CentOS/release, Host/CentOS/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/16/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/20/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-63379, CVE-2026-63381, CVE-2026-63382, CVE-2026-63383, CVE-2026-63384, CVE-2026-63385, CVE-2026-63387, CVE-2026-63388