Bug 1917565 (CVE-2021-20193) - CVE-2021-20193 tar: Memory leak in read_header() in list.c
Summary: CVE-2021-20193 tar: Memory leak in read_header() in list.c
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: CVE-2021-20193
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Red Hat Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On: 1917631 1917633 1917634 1917742
Blocks: 1917567 1939998
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2021-01-18 18:35 UTC by Pedro Sampaio
Modified: 2022-04-17 21:05 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the src/list.c of tar. This flaw allows an attacker who can submit a crafted input file to tar to cause uncontrolled consumption of memory. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2021-11-02 18:25:16 UTC
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)
PoC - Test case for memory leak/crash (2.00 KB, application/octet-stream)
2021-01-19 01:20 UTC, Carlos Andres Ramirez 		no flags Details
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Description Pedro Sampaio 2021-01-18 18:35:40 UTC 
An issue was discovered in GNU Tar 1.33 and earlier. There is a memory leak in read_header() in list.c in the tar application.

Upstream bug:

https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?59897

Upstream patch:

https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=d9d4435692150fa8ff68e1b1a473d187cc3fd777
Comment 1 Carlos Andres Ramirez 2021-01-19 01:20:05 UTC 
Created attachment 1748610 [details]
PoC - Test case for memory leak/crash

This is the .tar test case from my original report. Can be used with Valgrind to confirm the memory leak before the crash.
Comment 3 Todd Cullum 2021-01-19 01:34:37 UTC 
Flaw summary:

Memory pointed to by `next_long_name` and `next_long_link` was not being freed upon return of the `read_header()` routine in src/list.c. An attacker who provided a specially crafted input file to tar could cause an impact to application availability. The patch changes `read_header()` to not return before freeing memory pointed to by `next_long_name` and `next_long_link`.
Comment 4 Todd Cullum 2021-01-19 01:35:44 UTC 
Created tar tracking bugs for this issue:

Affects: fedora-all [bug 1917631]
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