CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-33646

Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

Published: Aug 10, 2022 | Modified: Nov 07, 2023
CVSS 3.x
7.5
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS 2.x
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
7.5 MODERATE
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Ubuntu
LOW

The th_read() function doesn’t free a variable t->th_buf.gnu_longname after allocating memory, which may cause a memory leak.

Weakness

The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Libtar Feep * 1.2.21 (excluding)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 RedHat libtar-0:1.2.20-17.el8 *
Libtar Ubuntu bionic *
Libtar Ubuntu kinetic *
Libtar Ubuntu lunar *
Libtar Ubuntu mantic *
Libtar Ubuntu trusty *
Libtar Ubuntu xenial *

Potential Mitigations

  • Choose a language or tool that provides automatic memory management, or makes manual memory management less error-prone.
  • For example, glibc in Linux provides protection against free of invalid pointers.
  • When using Xcode to target OS X or iOS, enable automatic reference counting (ARC) [REF-391].
  • To help correctly and consistently manage memory when programming in C++, consider using a smart pointer class such as std::auto_ptr (defined by ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 14882:2003), std::shared_ptr and std::unique_ptr (specified by an upcoming revision of the C++ standard, informally referred to as C++ 1x), or equivalent solutions such as Boost.

References