CVE-2023-31147
Publication date 25 May 2023
Last updated 26 August 2025
Ubuntu priority
Description
c-ares is an asynchronous resolver library. When /dev/urandom or RtlGenRandom() are unavailable, c-ares uses rand() to generate random numbers used for DNS query ids. This is not a CSPRNG, and it is also not seeded by srand() so will generate predictable output. Input from the random number generator is fed into a non-compilant RC4 implementation and may not be as strong as the original RC4 implementation. No attempt is made to look for modern OS-provided CSPRNGs like arc4random() that is widely available. This issue has been fixed in version 1.19.1.
Status
| Package | Ubuntu Release | Status |
|---|---|---|
| c-ares | ||
| 22.04 LTS jammy |
Not affected
|
|
| 20.04 LTS focal |
Not affected
|
|
| 18.04 LTS bionic |
Not affected
|
|
| 16.04 LTS xenial |
Not affected
|
|
| 14.04 LTS trusty | Ignored end of standard support |
Notes
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score |
6.5 · Medium
|
| Attack vector | Network |
| Attack complexity | Low |
| Privileges required | None |
| User interaction | None |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | Low |
| Integrity impact | Low |
| Availability impact | None |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N |