CVE-2018-25027 — libpulse-binding
HIGHCVE-2018-25027 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Use After Free vulnerability in libpulse-binding. A fix is available for libpulse-binding — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Use after free in libpulse-binding
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2018-25027 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
libpulse-bindingReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Overview
Version 1.2.1 of the libpulse-binding Rust crate, released on the 15th of June 2018, fixed a pair of use-after-free issues with the objects returned by the get_format_info and get_context methods of Stream objects. These objects were mistakenly being constructed without setting an important flag to prevent destruction of the underlying C objects they reference upon their own destruction.
This advisory is being written retrospectively, having previously only been noted in the changelog. No CVE assignment was sought.
Patches
Users are required to update to version 1.2.1 or newer.
Versions older than 1.2.1 have been yanked from crates.io. This was believed to have already been done at the time of the 1.2.1 release, but upon double checking now they were found to still be available, so has been done now (22nd October 2020).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | libpulse-binding | all versions | 1.2.1cargo update -p libpulse-binding --precise 1.2.1 |
Affected Products
libpulse-bindinglibpulse-binding_projectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for libpulse-binding, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update libpulse-binding to 1.2.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-25027 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-25027 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.