CVE-2018-20482

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    CVE-2018-20482

    Published: 26 Dec 2018Last Modified: 10 Sept 2026

    Summary:

    Details: GNU Tar through 1.30, when --sparse is used, mishandles file shrinkage during read access, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (infinite read loop in sparse_dump_region in sparse.c) by modifying a file that is supposed to be archived by a different user's process (e.g., a system backup running as root).

    References: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2018-12/msg00023.html, http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-04/msg00077.html, http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106354, https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/12/msg00023.html, https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/11/msg00025.html, https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201903-05, http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/tar.git/commit/?id=c15c42ccd1e2377945fd0414eca1a49294bff454, https://twitter.com/thatcks/status/1076166645708668928, https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/TarFindingTruncateBug, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18745431

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name:

    Purl:

    Affected ranges

    Type: GIT

    Events:

    Introduced- 0
    Fixed -None

    Affected versions

    release_1_30

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High