Off-By-One Write Overflow in libarchive Prefix/Suffix Handling
CVE-2025-5917 Published on June 9, 2025
Libarchive: off by one error in build_ustar_entry_name() at archive_write_set_format_pax.c
A vulnerability has been identified in the libarchive library. This flaw involves an 'off-by-one' miscalculation when handling prefixes and suffixes for file names. This can lead to a 1-byte write overflow. While seemingly small, such an overflow can corrupt adjacent memory, leading to unpredictable program behavior, crashes, or in specific circumstances, could be leveraged as a building block for more sophisticated exploitation. This bug affects libarchive versions prior to 3.8.0.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2025-5917 can be exploited with local system access, requires user interaction and a small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a small impact on availability.
Timeline
Reported to Red Hat.
Made public.
Weakness Type
What is a Memory Corruption Vulnerability?
The software writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Typically, this can result in corruption of data, a crash, or code execution. The software may modify an index or perform pointer arithmetic that references a memory location that is outside of the boundaries of the buffer. A subsequent write operation then produces undefined or unexpected results.
CVE-2025-5917 has been classified to as a Memory Corruption vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2025-5917
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Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.