XZ Utils provide a general-purpose data-compression library plus command-line tools. Prior to version 5.8.3, if lzma_index_decoder() was used to decode an Index that contained no Records, the resulting lzma_index was left in a state where where a subsequent lzma_index_append() would allocate too little memory, and a buffer overflow would occur. This issue has been patched in version 5.8.3.
Weakness
A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc().
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xz | Tukaani | * | 5.8.3 (excluding) |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | RedHat | xz-main-5.8.3-1.1.hum1 | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | esm-infra-legacy/trusty | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | esm-infra-legacy/xenial | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | esm-infra/bionic | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | esm-infra/focal | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | esm-infra/xenial | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | jammy | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | noble | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | questing | * |
| Xz-utils | Ubuntu | upstream | * |
Potential Mitigations
- Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.
- D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.
- Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.
- Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.
- For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].