FreeBSD VuXML: Documenting security issues in FreeBSD and the FreeBSD Ports Collection

clamav -- cabinet file handling DoS vulnerability

Affected packages
clamav < 0.86
clamav-devel < 20050620

Details

VuXML ID d8e1aadd-ee68-11d9-8310-0001020eed82
Discovery 2005-06-29
Entry 2005-07-06

An iDEFENSE Security Advisory reports:

Remote exploitation of an input validation error in Clam AntiVirus ClamAV allows attackers to cause a denial of service condition.

The vulnerability specifically exists due to insufficient validation on cabinet file header data. The ENSURE_BITS() macro fails to check for zero length reads, allowing a carefully constructed cabinet file to cause an infinite loop.

ClamAV is used in a number of mail gateway products. Successful exploitation requires an attacker to send a specially constructed CAB file through a mail gateway or personal anti-virus client utilizing the ClamAV scanning engine. The infinate loop will cause the ClamAV software to use all available processor resources, resulting in a denial of service or severe degradation to system performance. Remote exploitation can be achieved by sending a malicious file in an e-mail message or during an HTTP session.

References

CVE Name CVE-2005-1923
Message FB24803D1DF2A34FA59FC157B77C97050462A3AB@IDSERV04.idef.com