Heap use-after-free via dangling provider context
Published Sep 6, 2026 · Updated Sep 8, 2026
Use-after-free in curl 8.14.0 through 8.21.0 allows attackers to trigger invalid heap access during provider-backed TLS operations. Curl_ossl_ctx_init passes an easy handle's allocated library context to OpenSSL without retaining ownership, so destroying the handle leaves a pooled connection with a dangling pointer. Reachability requires the multi interface, an OpenSSL 3 provider, connection reuse, handle destruction, and later I/O; published sources specify no higher-level consequence.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in curl 8.14.0 through 8.21.0 allows attackers to trigger invalid heap access during provider-backed TLS operations. Curl_ossl_ctx_init passes an easy handle's allocated library context to OpenSSL without retaining ownership, so destroying the handle leaves a pooled connection with a dangling pointer. Reachability requires the multi interface, an OpenSSL 3 provider, connection reuse, handle destruction, and later I/O; published sources specify no higher-level consequence.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-80229
- Published
- Sep 6, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 8, 2026
- Vendor
- curl
- Product
- curl
- Classifications
- CWE-416
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 6, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 8, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=8.14.0 <=8.14.0
- Affected versionversion=8.14.1 <=8.14.1
- Affected versionversion=8.15.0 <=8.15.0
- Affected versionversion=8.16.0 <=8.16.0
- Affected versionversion=8.17.0 <=8.17.0
- Affected versionversion=8.18.0 <=8.18.0
- Affected versionversion=8.19.0 <=8.19.0
- Affected versionversion=8.20.0 <=8.20.0
- Affected versionversion=8.21.0 <=8.21.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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