FreeBSD VuXML: Documenting security issues in FreeBSD and the FreeBSD Ports Collection

libarchive -- Infinite loop in corrupt archives handling in libarchive

Affected packages
libarchive < 1.3.1

Details

VuXML ID 792bc222-c5d7-11db-9f82-000e0c2e438a
Discovery 2006-11-08
Entry 2007-02-26

Problem Description:

If the end of an archive is reached while attempting to "skip" past a region of an archive, libarchive will enter an infinite loop wherein it repeatedly attempts (and fails) to read further data.

Impact:

An attacker able to cause a system to extract (via "tar -x" or another application which uses libarchive) or list the contents (via "tar -t" or another libarchive-using application) of an archive provided by the attacker can cause libarchive to enter an infinite loop and use all available CPU time.

Workaround:

No workaround is available.

References

CVE Name CVE-2006-5680
FreeBSD Advisory SA-06:24.libarchive