CVE-2014-3538 Denial of service in n/a
Remote attackers can cause denial of service via CPU consumption by submitting crafted files to the file utility, affecting Linux distributions.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2014-3538?
CVE-2014-3538 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 3 Jul 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
file before 5.19 does not properly restrict the amount of data read during a regex search, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a crafted file that triggers backtracking during processing of an awk rule. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2013-7345.
Weakness: CWE-399
Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-3538?
It affects 3 products.
Products include Christos Zoulas File, Debian Debian Linux, Php Php.
How do I fix CVE-2014-3538?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2014-3538 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-3538 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2014-3538, GHSA-p2f8-8pr7-gprp, MGASA-2014-0307, UBUNTU-CVE-2014-3538.