# CVE-2006-5646: Memory corruption in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service via a malicious CHM file when archive scanning is enabled in Sophos Anti-Virus.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 1 Nov 2006
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cmj2-m79r-9mvg

## What is CVE-2006-5646?

CVE-2006-5646 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in n/a, published on 1 Nov 2006. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Heap-based buffer overflow in Sophos Anti-Virus and Endpoint Security before 6.0.5, Anti-Virus for Linux before 5.0.10, and other platforms before 4.11, when archive scanning is enabled, allows remote attackers to trigger a denial of service (memory corruption) via a CHM file with an LZX decompression header that specifies a Window_size of 0.

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2006-5646?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Sophos Anti-Virus, Sophos Endpoint Security.

## How do I fix CVE-2006-5646?

No fix has been published for CVE-2006-5646 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2006-5646 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2006-5646 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Sophos AntiVirus - '.CHM' File Heap Overflow (PoC) (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2008-6904](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-6904/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-5541](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5541/): Security feature bypass in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2007-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-4577/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2010-2308](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-2308/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2008-1737](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-1737/): Null dereference in n/a (medium 6.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2006-5646 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2006-5646 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in n/a, published on 1 Nov 2006. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2006-5646 exists.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-5646/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-5646/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2006-5646
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2006-5646
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2006-5646

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-5646/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.