High
TLS session caching disaster
Type: advisorySources: OSV
libcurl can be tricked into using already freed memory when a new TLS session is negotiated or a client certificate is requested on an existing connection. For example, this can happen when a TLS server requests a client certificate on a connection that was established without one. A malicious server can use this in rare unfortunate circumstances to potentially reach remote code execution in the client. OpenSSL can declare a "new session" for different reasons, including the initial TLS handshake completion, TLS 1.2 (or earlier) renegotiation, or TLS 1.3 client certificate requests. When libcurl at runtime sets up support for session ID caching on a connection using OpenSSL, it stores pointers to the transfer in-memory object for later retrieval when OpenSSL considers a new session to be established. However, if the connection is used by multiple transfers (like with a reused HTTP/1.1 connection or multiplexed HTTP/2 connection) that first transfer object might be freed before the new session is established on that connection and then the function accesses a memory buffer that might be freed. When using that memory, libcurl might even call a function pointer in the object, making it possible for a remote code execution if the server could somehow manage to get crafted memory content into the correct place in memory.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2021-22901
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 09:37 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
libcurl can be tricked into using already freed memory when a new TLS session is negotiated or a client certificate is requested on an existing connection. For example, this can happen when a TLS server requests a client certificate on a connection that was established without one. A malicious server can use this in rare unfortunate circumstances to potentially reach remote code execution in the client. OpenSSL can declare a "new session" for different reasons, including the initial TLS handshake completion, TLS 1.2 (or earlier) renegotiation, or TLS 1.3 client certificate requests. When libcurl at runtime sets up support for session ID caching on a connection using OpenSSL, it stores pointers to the transfer in-memory object for later retrieval when OpenSSL considers a new session to be established. However, if the connection is used by multiple transfers (like with a reused HTTP/1.1 connection or multiplexed HTTP/2 connection) that first transfer object might be freed before the new session is established on that connection and then the function accesses a memory buffer that might be freed. When using that memory, libcurl might even call a function pointer in the object, making it possible for a remote code execution if the server could somehow manage to get crafted memory content into the correct place in memory.
osv:CURL-CVE-2021-22901
Complete source record
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