CVE-2026-69184

c-ares: CPU-exhaustion denial of service via unbounded DNS name compression pointer chains

Published Sep 18, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
c-ares is an asynchronous resolver library. Prior to 1.34.7, ares_dns_name_parse() enforces backward DNS compression pointers but does not bound the total pointer hops or assembled name length. A malicious DNS server can send a response containing a long descending pointer chain and many resource records whose NAME or RDATA fields refer to the chain, causing repeated decompression work that grows quadratically with message size. A single crafted response can stall the single-threaded c-ares event loop and deny DNS resolution, without causing memory corruption or information disclosure. This issue is fixed in version 1.34.7.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8951-1 c-ares vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared C-ares
C-ares c-ares
Vendors & Products C-ares
C-ares c-ares
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description c-ares is an asynchronous resolver library. Prior to 1.34.7, ares_dns_name_parse() enforces backward DNS compression pointers but does not bound the total pointer hops or assembled name length. A malicious DNS server can send a response containing a long descending pointer chain and many resource records whose NAME or RDATA fields refer to the chain, causing repeated decompression work that grows quadratically with message size. A single crafted response can stall the single-threaded c-ares event loop and deny DNS resolution, without causing memory corruption or information disclosure. This issue is fixed in version 1.34.7.
Title c-ares: CPU-exhaustion denial of service via unbounded DNS name compression pointer chains
Weaknesses CWE-407
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Sep 21, 2026, 8:48 PM
Reserved
Aug 3, 2026, 4:00 PM
Status
Awaiting Analysis
Published
Sep 18, 2026, 6:17 PM
Modified
Sep 24, 2026, 9:16 PM
Severity
Important
Public date
Sep 18, 2026, 5:26 PM