Resource management error in libarchive

1) Resource management error

EUVDB-ID: #VU33066

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 4.8 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2016-7166

CWE-ID: CWE-399 - Resource Management Errors

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local non-authenticated attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

libarchive before 3.2.0 does not limit the number of recursive decompressions, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and application crash) via a crafted gzip file.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

libarchive: 3.0.0 - 3.1.901a

External links

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1844.html
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-1850.html
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/09/08/15
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/09/08/18
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/linuxbulletinjul2016-3090544.html
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/92901
http://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=207362
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1347086
http://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/commit/6e06b1c89dd0d16f74894eac4cfc1327a06ee4a0
http://github.com/libarchive/libarchive/issues/660
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201701-03

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

How the attacker can exploit this vulnerability?

The attacker would have to trick the victim to open a a specially crafted archive.

The attacker would have to login to the system and perform certain actions in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.