CVE-2018-20482

Public Exploit

Description

GNU Tar through 1.30, when --sparse is used, mishandles file shrinkage during read access, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (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).

Category

4.7
CVSS
Severity: Medium
CVSS 3.1 •
CVSS 2.0 •
EPSS 0.01%
Vendor Advisory gentoo.org Vendor Advisory opensuse.org
Affected: n/a n/a
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Link Tags
https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/TarFindingTruncateBug third party advisory patch
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=c15c42ccd1e2377945fd0414eca1a49294bff454 third party advisory patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/12/msg00023.html third party advisory mailing list
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18745431 third party advisory exploit
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106354 third party advisory vdb entry
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201903-05 third party advisory vendor advisory
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2018-12/msg00023.html third party advisory
https://twitter.com/thatcks/status/1076166645708668928 third party advisory patch
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-04/msg00077.html vendor advisory mailing list third party advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/11/msg00025.html third party advisory mailing list

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2018-20482?
CVE-2018-20482 has been scored as a medium severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2018-20482?
To fix CVE-2018-20482, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2018-20482 being actively exploited in the wild?
It is possible that CVE-2018-20482 is being exploited or will be exploited in a near future based on public information. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
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