CVE-2023-7256Double-free in libpcap before 1.10.5 with remote packet capture support.
- 4.4MediumCVSS base score
- 0.24%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 84% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
In affected libpcap versions during the setup of a remote packet capture the internal function sock_initaddress() calls getaddrinfo() and possibly freeaddrinfo(), but does not clearly indicate to the caller function whether freeaddrinfo() still remains to be called after the function returns. This makes it possible in some scenarios that both the function and its caller call freeaddrinfo() for the same allocated memory block. A similar problem was reported in Apple libpcap, to which Apple assigned CVE-2023-40400.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Tcpdump
- 5 months later
· 5 months later
Published
- 4 days later
· 4 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| TcpdumpCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium4.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Medium4.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.24% · top 84% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.4.
Affected products
- affected 1.8.x
- affected 1.9.x
- affected 1.10.x – ≤ 1.10.4
What to do
Solution: Upgrade to libpcap 1.10.5.
Workaround: Do not build libpcap with remote packet capture support.
Exploitation: A functional exploit exists.
References
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-59437 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-7256)Record last updated .