In a recent security update, vulnerabilities in libarchive have prompted urgent patches. Classified under the identifier USN-7070-1, these vulnerabilities are crucial for users and administrators to understand, particularly those running various versions of Ubuntu Linux. This article delves into the specifics of these vulnerabilities, their potential impact, and the importance of timely system updates.
Libarchive, a multi-format archive and compression library widely used in Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, is essential for handling popular archive files. Unfortunately, it was found to have multiple security issues that could potentially allow an attacker to execute a denial of service (DoS) attack or possibly execute arbitrary code.
CVE-2022-36227: Discovered in versions of libarchive before 3.6.2, this vulnerability stems from improper error handling after calling the calloc function. Specifically, if calloc fails and returns a NULL pointer, it's not checked effectively by libarchive, which subsequently leads to a NULL pointer dereference. This issue particularly affected Ubuntu versions 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS, and 22.04 LTS.
Despite some disagreements about the code-execution impact, scenarios exist in which, if NULL equates to the 0x0 memory address and privileged code accesses it, memory operations might be possible, potentially leading to unauthorized code execution.
CVE-2024-48957 and CVE-2024-48958: These vulnerabilities were identified in libarchive before version 3.7.5. They occur in the handling of RAR formatted archives by the functions execute_filter_audio and execute_filter_delta respectively. Both functions allow the source pointer to move beyond the destination buffer, leading to out-of-bounds memory access. These vulnerabilities specifically affect Ubuntu versions 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS.
The exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to carry out a denial of service attack, crashing the application, or, in some scenarios, executing arbitrary code. This exploitation can compromise system security, data integrity, and availability, serving as a gateway for further malicious activities.
For administrators and users, the immediate response should be patching affected systems. Ubuntu has already released updates that address these vulnerabilities, ensuring that no unchecked NULL pointers or out-of-bounds memory accesses occur within libarchive.
Here are some recommended steps for mitigating these risks:
Understanding and promptly addressing vulnerabilities like USN-7070-1 is crucial for maintaining the security and integrity of systems. By staying vigilant and responsive, users and administrators can significantly mitigate the potential impact of these security flaws.