CVE-2018-1000637

Vulnerability

A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in zutils versions prior to 1.8-pre2, specifically in the zcat utility when handling input files with the -v (or --show-nonprinting) option enabled [1]. The bug occurs during decompression of crafted compressed files, allowing an attacker to trigger a buffer overrun.

Exploitation

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by enticing a victim to open a specially crafted compressed file with zcat when the -v option is active (directly or indirectly) [1]. No additional authentication or network position is required beyond the victim processing the malicious file.

Impact

Successful exploitation could lead to a denial of service or arbitrary code execution, depending on the crafted input [1]. The attacker may achieve code execution at the privilege level of the user running zcat.

Mitigation

The vulnerability is fixed in zutils version 1.8-pre2, released on August 2, 2018 [1]. Users should upgrade to this version or later. No workarounds are mentioned.