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OpenAdvisories
High · 8.1 CVE-2026-56123 EUVD-2026-39455GHSA-6r8c-w5mj-43hv

socat 1.8.0.0 - 1.8.1.1 Heap Buffer Overflow via SOCKS5 Reply Parser

Published Jun 25, 2026 · Updated Jul 14, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
socat socat 1.8.0.0 – < 1.8.1.2 1.8.1.2

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 socat 1.8.1.3-1 —
Debian 13 socat 1.8.0.3-1+deb13u1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS socat 1.8.1.1-1ubuntu0.1 USN-8511-1
Ubuntu 25.10 socat No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS socat 1.8.0.0-4ubuntu0.1 USN-8511-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed socat 1.8.1.3-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11151-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.24 socat 1.8.1.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.23 socat 1.8.1.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.22 socat 1.8.1.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.21 socat 1.8.1.2-r0 —

Advisories 2

References