7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. Versions 9.18 through 26.00 contain an uninitialized heap read in the SquashFS archive handler caused by a sparsely populated index array. In the SquashFS handler, _blockToNode is allocated with capacity for every metadata block but populated only when an inode crosses a block boundary, so a crafted image with few inodes spanning many blocks leaves most slots holding raw heap contents (the underlying allocator does not zero-initialize POD storage). When OpenDir looks up an attacker-influenced blockIndex (derived from the RootInode superblock field), it reads two of these uninitialized slots and passes them as the left/right bounds of a binary search over _nodesPos, which dereferences the midpoint without bounds checking; if the resulting value happens to match the search key, the returned index is used to read a full node struct from _nodes whose fields feed further directory parsing, forming a chained OOB read primitive that is heap-layout-dependent and not reliably triggerable. The SquashFS handler is enabled by default in stock 7z.dll and the issue triggers during Open() with no interaction beyond opening the file; impact is denial of service from wild-pointer dereference and potential heap information disclosure, with no write primitive. Version 26.01 fixes the issue.
Weakness
The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-zip | 7-zip | 9.18 (including) | 26.01 (excluding) |
| 7zip | Ubuntu | upstream | * |
| P7zip | Ubuntu | upstream | * |
Potential Mitigations
- Assume all input is malicious. Use an “accept known good” input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
- When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, “boat” may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as “red” or “blue.”
- Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code’s environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.
- To reduce the likelihood of introducing an out-of-bounds read, ensure that you validate and ensure correct calculations for any length argument, buffer size calculation, or offset. Be especially careful of relying on a sentinel (i.e. special character such as NUL) in untrusted inputs.