CVE-2020-8231
HighCVSS 7.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Very high risk93th percentile - higher than 93% of all known CVEs
Summary
Due to use of a dangling pointer, libcurl 7.29.0 through 7.71.1 can use the wrong connection when sending data.
Risk Assessment
This can lead to sending data over an incorrect connection, potentially resulting in disclosure of sensitive information or compromise of data integrity.
Recommendation
Upgrade libcurl to a version newer than 7.71.1 to avoid the risk associated with the dangling pointer.
Other vulnerabilities in libcurl
See all- CVE-2017-1000254High
libcurl may read outside of a heap allocated buffer when doing FTP. A flaw in the string parser for the directory name may lead to a missing NUL byte at the end of the buffer, resulting in the potential to read data beyond the allocated memory area.
- CVE-2016-5421High
Use-after-free vulnerability in libcurl before version 7.50.1 allows attackers to control which connection is used or possibly have unspecified other impact via unknown vectors.
- CVE-2016-0755High
The ConnectionExists function in lib/url.c in libcurl before version 7.47.0 does not properly re-use NTLM-authenticated proxy connections, which might allow remote attackers to authenticate as other users via a request.
- CVE-2025-5399Medium
Due to a mistake in libcurl's WebSocket code, a malicious server can send a particularly crafted packet which makes libcurl get trapped in an endless busy-loop. There is no other way for the application to escape or exit this loop other than killing the thread/process. This might be used to DoS.
- CVE-2025-4947Medium
libcurl accidentally skips certificate verification for QUIC connections when connecting to a host specified as an IP address in the URL. Therefore, it does not detect impostors or man-in-the-middle attacks.
- CVE-2024-6197High
libcurl's ASN1 parser has this utf8asn1str() function used for parsing an ASN.1 UTF-8 string. It can detect an invalid field and return error. Unfortunately, when doing so it also invokes `free()` on a 4 byte local stack buffer. Most modern malloc implementations detect this error and immediately abort.
- CVE-2024-6874Medium
The curl_url_get() function in libcurl offers punycode conversions to and from IDN. When converting a name that is exactly 256 bytes, libcurl reads outside a stack-based buffer when built with the macidn IDN backend.
- CVE-2024-2398Medium
A vulnerability in the libcurl library causes a memory leak when handling HTTP/2 server push. When an application allows server push and the number of headers exceeds the limit of 1000, libcurl aborts the push but fails to free previously allocated headers.
- CVE-2025-5025Medium
libcurl supports pinning of the server certificate public key for HTTPS transfers. Due to an omission, this check is not performed when connecting with QUIC for HTTP/3, when the TLS backend is wolfSSL. Documentation says the option works with wolfSSL, but fails to specify that it does not for QUIC.
- CVE-2026-19931Critical
A flaw in libcurl causes it to wrongly reuse an HTTP connection established for a given hostname using Negotiate authentication, when the initial request is made with empty credentials. This can cause user B's request to be sent over user A's previously authenticated connection.
Original NVD description (English source)
Due to use of a dangling pointer, libcurl 7.29.0 through 7.71.1 can use the wrong connection when sending data.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

