RUSTSEC-2026-0253: Potential use-after-free due to lack of panic safety in `LruCache::pop()`
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Assessment
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Newbie friendliness
- 68/100
Research direction
Start by locating the repository's declaration of the lru dependency and its lockfile, then confirm where version 0.18.0 is selected. Compare the resolved version with the issue's stated fixed version, and run the repository's existing test or verification commands to confirm the dependency update does not break the project.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Potential use-after-free due to lack of panic safety in
LruCache::pop()
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Status | unsound |
| Package | lru |
| Version | 0.18.0 |
| URL | https://github.com/jeromefroe/lru-rs/pull/238 |
| Date | 2026-05-12 |
LruCache::pop() in lru was not panic-safe. If the Drop implementation of a stored key panics during pop(), self.detach() is never called, leaving dangling pointers in the internal doubly-linked list.
A subsequent cache operation that triggers eviction can then dereference these dangling pointers:
- The node is freed from the map, but remains linked in the LRU list due to the skipped
detach()call - When a new insertion causes eviction, the LRU traversal encounters the dangling pointer
- This results in a write to already-freed memory during the eviction process
Impact
- CWE-416 (Use-After-Free): memory corruption when subsequent cache operations access freed node pointers in the linked list
- CWE-415 (Double Free): potential heap corruption when the same memory is freed multiple times
Both types of undefined behavior can be invoked in safe Rust, but only if unwinding panics are enabled and std::panic::catch_unwind is used with key types that have potentially-panicking Drop implementations.
Fix
Fixed in lru 0.18.2 by detaching the node from the linked list before freeing it and dropping the key (lru-rs#238).
See advisory page for additional details.
- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 0
- Forks
- 0
- Avg merge
- 1d 14h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 5
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