# CVE-2019-5020: Denial of service in Yara Object

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in Yara by providing a specially crafted binary file that triggers an assertion failure during object lookup.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 31 Jul 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2019-5020, GHSA-6r2m-f9j9-h374

## What is CVE-2019-5020?

CVE-2019-5020 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Yara Object, published on 31 Jul 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

An exploitable denial of service vulnerability exists in the object lookup functionality of Yara 3.8.1. A specially crafted binary file can cause a negative value to be read to satisfy an assert, resulting in Denial of Service. An attacker can create a malicious binary to trigger this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-754 (Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions), CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-5020?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Virustotal Yara.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-5020?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2019-5020 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-5020 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Yara Object

- [CVE-2023-40857](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-40857/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2018-12034](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12034/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-12035](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-12035/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-9438](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9438/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-9304](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-9304/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-5020 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-5020 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Yara Object, published on 31 Jul 2019. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-5020 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Yara Object. 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-2019-5020/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5020/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-5020
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-5020
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-5020

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5020/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.