RSEC-2023-1

    Dashboard / Vulnerabilities / RSEC-2023-1

    RSEC-2023-1

    Published: 13 Jul 2023Last Modified: 19 May 2025

    Summary: Double-free and invalid free vulnerabilities

    Details: The readxl R package has been found susceptible to vulnerabilities due to its dependency on libxls library version 1.4.0. Two distinct memory management issues were discovered in the read_MSAT and read_MSAT_body functions within the ole.c component of libxls. The first vulnerability is a double-free flaw in the read_MSAT function, which could be exploited by an attacker using a crafted file to cause a Denial of Service (DoS), resulting in an application crash. This vulnerability is different from CVE-2017-2897. The second vulnerability is an invalid free flaw in the read_MSAT_body function. This issue, stemming from inconsistent memory management in the ole2_read_header function, allows attackers to trigger a DoS, application crash, or possibly an unspecified impact through a specially crafted file.

    References: https://readxl.tidyverse.org/news/index.html#readxl-130, https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-2896, https://github.com/evanmiller/libxls/issues/34, https://github.com/evanmiller/libxls/issues/35

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: readxl

    Purl: pkg:cran/readxl

    Affected ranges

    Type: ECOSYSTEM

    Events:

    Introduced- 0.1.0
    Fixed -1.3.0

    Affected versions

    0.1.0
    0.1.1

    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
    RSEC-2023-1 | CVE-DB