#VU16782 Infinite loop in Tar - CVE-2018-20482
Published: January 2, 2019 / Updated: March 22, 2019
Vulnerability identifier: #VU16782
Vulnerability risk: Low
CVSSv4.0: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/U:Clear
CVE-ID: CVE-2018-20482
CWE-ID: CWE-835
Exploitation vector: Local access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerable software:
Tar
Tar
Software vendor:
GNU
GNU
Description
The vulnerability allows a local attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.
The vulnerability exists due to the application mishandles file shrinkage during read access when --sparse is used. A local attacker can trigger infinite read loop in sparse_dump_region in sparse.c by modifying a file that is supposed to be archived by a different user's process (e.g., a system backup running as root) and cause denial of service conditions.
Remediation
Install update from vendor's website.