Buffer overflow in libarchive through 2.8.5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted TAR archive.

The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201406-02 (libarchive: Multiple vulnerabilities)

    Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in libarchive. Please       review the CVE identifiers referenced below for details.
  Impact :

    A remote attacker could entice a user or automated process to open a       specially crafted archive using an application linked against libarchive,       possibly resulting in execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of       the process or a Denial of Service condition.
  Workaround :

    There is no known workaround at this time.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2011:1507 :

Updated libarchive packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

The libarchive programming library can create and read several different streaming archive formats, including GNU tar and cpio. It can also read ISO 9660 CD-ROM images.

Two heap-based buffer overflow flaws were discovered in libarchive. If a user were tricked into expanding a specially crafted ISO 9660 CD-ROM image or tar archive with an application using libarchive, it could cause the application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application.
(CVE-2011-1777, CVE-2011-1778)

All libarchive users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. All running applications using libarchive must be restarted for this update to take effect.

The remote host is running a version of Mac OS X 10.7 that is older than version 10.7.4.  The newer version contains numerous security-related fixes for the following components :

  - Login Windows
  - Bluetooth
  - curl
  - HFS
  - Kernel
  - libarchive
  - libsecurity
  - libxml
  - LoginUIFramework
  - PHP
  - Quartz Composer
  - QuickTime
  - Ruby
  - Security Framework
  - Time Machine
  - X11

The remote host is running a version of Mac OS X 10.6 that does not have Security Update 2012-002 applied. This update contains multiple security-related fixes for the following components :

  - curl
  - Directory Service
  - ImageIO
  - libarchive
  - libsecurity
  - libxml
  - Quartz Composer
  - QuickTime
  - Ruby
  - Samba
  - Security Framework

The remote host is running a version of Mac OS X 10.7.x that is prior to 10.7.4. The newer version contains numerous security-related fixes for the following components :

  - Login Window
  - Bluetooth
  - curl
  - HFS
  - Kernel
  - libarchive
  - libsecurity
  - libxml
  - LoginUIFramework
  - PHP
  - Quartz Composer
  - QuickTime
  - Ruby
  - Security Framework
  - Time Machine
  - X11

Note that this update addresses the recent FileVault password vulnerability, in which user passwords are stored in plaintext to a system-wide debug log if the legacy version of FileVault is used to encrypt user directories after a system upgrade to Lion. Since the patch only limits further exposure, though, we recommend that all users on the system change their passwords if user folders were encrypted using the legacy version of FileVault prior to and after an upgrade to OS X 10.7.

Two buffer overflows have been discovered in libarchive, a library providing a flexible interface for reading and writing archives in various formats. The possible buffer overflows while reading ISO 9660 or tar streams allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code depending on the application that makes use of this functionality.

It was discovered that libarchive incorrectly handled certain ISO 9660 image files. If a user were tricked into using a specially crafted ISO 9660 image file, a remote attacker could cause libarchive to crash or possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges. (CVE-2011-1777)

It was discovered that libarchive incorrectly handled certain tar archive files. If a user were tricked into using a specially crafted tar file, a remote attacker could cause libarchive to crash or possibly execute arbitrary code with user privileges. (CVE-2011-1778).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Two heap-based buffer overflow flaws were discovered in libarchive. If a user were tricked into expanding a specially crafted ISO 9660 CD-ROM image or tar archive with an application using libarchive, it could cause the application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application (CVE-2011-1777, CVE-2011-1778).

The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues.

Updated libarchive packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

The libarchive programming library can create and read several different streaming archive formats, including GNU tar and cpio. It can also read ISO 9660 CD-ROM images.

Two heap-based buffer overflow flaws were discovered in libarchive. If a user were tricked into expanding a specially crafted ISO 9660 CD-ROM image or tar archive with an application using libarchive, it could cause the application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application.
(CVE-2011-1777, CVE-2011-1778)

All libarchive users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. All running applications using libarchive must be restarted for this update to take effect.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
74259	GLSA-201406-02 : libarchive: Multiple vulnerabilities	Nessus	Gentoo Local Security Checks	high
68396	Oracle Linux 6 : libarchive (ELSA-2011-1507)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
6482	Mac OS X 10.7 < 10.7.4 Multiple Vulnerabilities	Nessus Network Monitor	Generic	critical
59067	Mac OS X Multiple Vulnerabilities (Security Update 2012-002) (BEAST)	Nessus	MacOS X Local Security Checks	critical
59066	Mac OS X 10.7.x < 10.7.4 Multiple Vulnerabilities (BEAST)	Nessus	MacOS X Local Security Checks	critical
58043	Debian DSA-2413-1 : libarchive - buffer overflows	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	medium
57341	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS / 10.10 / 11.04 / 11.10 : libarchive vulnerabilities (USN-1310-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	medium
57332	Mandriva Linux Security Advisory : libarchive (MDVSA-2011:190)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	medium
56990	RHEL 6 : libarchive (RHSA-2011:1507)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2011-1778

high

Tenable Plugins

high

medium

critical

critical

critical

medium

medium

medium

medium