file: Denial of service

Background

The file utility attempts to identify a file’s format by scanning binary data for patterns.

Description

An issue with the ELF parser used by the file utility can cause a resource consumption when reading a specially-crafted ELF binary.

Impact

A context-dependent attacker may be able to cause Denial of Service.

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-5.21"