CVE-2026-56123

Severity CVSS v4.0:

CRITICAL

Type:

CWE-122 Heap-based Buffer Overflow

Publication date:

25/06/2026

Last modified:

26/06/2026

Description

socat versions 1.8.0.0 through 1.8.1.1 contain a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability that allows a malicious SOCKS5 proxy server to overwrite adjacent heap memory by exploiting a sign-extension flaw in the DOMAINNAME reply parser. During connection setup, the domain name length byte is read through a signed char field causing a negative bytes_to_read value that is implicitly converted to size_t, resulting in an unbounded heap write into the 262-byte reply buffer with attacker-controlled size and content.

Impact

Vector 4.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS v4.0 Severity and Metrics:

Base Score: 9.20 CRITICAL
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector (AV): Network
Attack Complexity (AC): High
Attack Requirements (AT): None
Privileges Required (PR): None
User Interaction (UI): None
Confidentiality (VC): High
Integrity (VI): High
Availability (VA): High
Confidentiality (SC): None
Integrity (SI): None
Availability (SA): None

Base Score 4.0

9.20

Severity 4.0

CRITICAL

Vector 3.x

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H CVSS v3.1 Severity and Metrics:

Base Score: 8.10 HIGH
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector (AV): Network
Attack Complexity (AC): High
Privileges Required (PR): None
User Interaction (UI): None
Scope (S): Unchanged
Confidentiality (C): High
Integrity (I): High
Availability (A): High