vulnerability
Amazon Linux 2023: CVE-2023-38545: Important priority package update for curl
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C) | Oct 11, 2023 | Feb 17, 2025 | Jul 4, 2025 |
Severity
9
CVSS
(AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C)
Published
Oct 11, 2023
Added
Feb 17, 2025
Modified
Jul 4, 2025
Description
This flaw makes curl overflow a heap based buffer in the SOCKS5 proxy
handshake.
When curl is asked to pass along the host name to the SOCKS5 proxy to allow
that to resolve the address instead of it getting done by curl itself, the
maximum length that host name can be is 255 bytes.
If the host name is detected to be longer, curl switches to local name
resolving and instead passes on the resolved address only. Due to this bug,
the local variable that means "let the host resolve the name" could get the
wrong value during a slow SOCKS5 handshake, and contrary to the intention,
copy the too long host name to the target buffer instead of copying just the
resolved address there.
The target buffer being a heap based buffer, and the host name coming from the
URL that curl has been told to operate with.
A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the SOCKS5 proxy handshake in the Curl package. If Curl is unable to resolve the address itself, it passes the hostname to the SOCKS5 proxy. However, the maximum length of the hostname that can be passed is 255 bytes. If the hostname is longer, then Curl switches to the local name resolving and passes the resolved address only to the proxy. The local variable that instructs Curl to "let the host resolve the name" could obtain the wrong value during a slow SOCKS5 handshake, resulting in the too-long hostname being copied to the target buffer instead of the resolved address, which was not the intended behavior.
handshake.
When curl is asked to pass along the host name to the SOCKS5 proxy to allow
that to resolve the address instead of it getting done by curl itself, the
maximum length that host name can be is 255 bytes.
If the host name is detected to be longer, curl switches to local name
resolving and instead passes on the resolved address only. Due to this bug,
the local variable that means "let the host resolve the name" could get the
wrong value during a slow SOCKS5 handshake, and contrary to the intention,
copy the too long host name to the target buffer instead of copying just the
resolved address there.
The target buffer being a heap based buffer, and the host name coming from the
URL that curl has been told to operate with.
A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the SOCKS5 proxy handshake in the Curl package. If Curl is unable to resolve the address itself, it passes the hostname to the SOCKS5 proxy. However, the maximum length of the hostname that can be passed is 255 bytes. If the hostname is longer, then Curl switches to the local name resolving and passes the resolved address only to the proxy. The local variable that instructs Curl to "let the host resolve the name" could obtain the wrong value during a slow SOCKS5 handshake, resulting in the too-long hostname being copied to the target buffer instead of the resolved address, which was not the intended behavior.
Solutions
amazon-linux-2023-upgrade-curlamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-curl-debuginfoamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-curl-debugsourceamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-curl-minimalamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-curl-minimal-debuginfoamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-libcurlamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-libcurl-debuginfoamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-libcurl-develamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-libcurl-minimalamazon-linux-2023-upgrade-libcurl-minimal-debuginfo
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