file: Denial of service

Background

file is a utility that guesses a file format by scanning binary data for patterns.

Description

Multiple out-of-bounds read errors and invalid pointer dereference errors have been found in cdf.c.

Impact

A remote attacker could entice a user to open a specially crafted Composite Document File (CDF) using file, possibly resulting in a Denial of Service condition.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All file users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sys-apps/file-5.11"