safeurl: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
CVE-2026-77972 is a critical-severity time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition vulnerability in safeurl from Slab, with a CVSS 4.0 base score of 9.0 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected safeurl versions: 0.1.0 and later; feabbd0a13f83028ab24b71710526e9da9841f70 and later. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.33% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.
Critical severity: a successful attack would have severe impact.
What to do
- Check which version of safeurl you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
- Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.
Affected products and versions
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slab | safeurl | 0.1.0 and later; feabbd0a13f83028ab24b71710526e9da9841f70 and later | Not stated |
Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.
How the severity score breaks down
- Attack vector
- NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
- Attack complexity
- HighSuccess depends on conditions outside the attacker's control.
- Attack requirements
- PresentThe target must be in a specific state or configuration for the attack to work.
- Privileges required
- NoneNo account or login is needed.
- User interaction
- NoneNo action by a victim is required.
- Confidentiality (vulnerable system)
- HighSerious loss of confidentiality on the vulnerable system.
- Integrity (vulnerable system)
- LowLimited loss of integrity on the vulnerable system.
- Availability (vulnerable system)
- NoneNo loss of availability on the vulnerable system.
- Confidentiality (other systems)
- HighSerious loss of confidentiality on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
- Integrity (other systems)
- LowLimited loss of integrity on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
- Availability (other systems)
- NoneNo loss of availability on systems beyond the vulnerable one.
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X. Scored by CNA.
Official description
Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition in Slab safeurl allows an attacker who controls a hostname's DNS responses to reach internal network destinations that validation rejected. Validation returns a verdict and not the address it approved, so the HTTP clients the library ships receive the original hostname and resolve it a second time when the request is made. An attacker who controls the authoritative DNS for a name can answer the first lookup with a permitted address and the second with a blocked one, and the request then reaches a destination validation never approved. The same window opens without an attacker whenever a name legitimately resolves to different addresses across lookups, such as short record lifetimes or rotation between several addresses. This issue affects safeurl: from 0.1.0 onward.
Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.
The underlying weakness: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
The product checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check.
How developers prevent this class of flaw
- The most basic advice for TOCTOU vulnerabilities is to not perform a check before the use. This does not resolve the underlying issue of the execution of a function on a resource whose state and identity cannot be assured, but it does help to limit the false sense of security given by the check.
- When the file being altered is owned by the current user and group, set the effective gid and uid to that of the current user and group when executing this statement.
- Limit the interleaving of operations on files from multiple processes.
More Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition vulnerabilities (CWE-367)
Timeline
- CVE record published.
- CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: partial).
- Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).
References
Patches and release notes
Other vulnerabilities in safeurl
- 9.0 Critical severity
Recent Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition vulnerabilities
- 8.3 High severity
- 8.3 High severity
- 8.3 High severity
- 8.7 High severity
- 8.8 High severity
- 7.8 High severity
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