CVE-2019-8383

Vulnerability

An invalid memory address occurs in the function adv_png_unfilter_8 in lib/png.c of AdvanceCOMP through version 2.1 [1]. The function processes PNG filter bytes during decompression; when a specially crafted file is supplied, an out-of-bounds read or write leads to a segmentation fault [1][2]. The vulnerable code path is reachable when any AdvanceCOMP utility (e.g., advpng) opens a malicious PNG file [1].

Exploitation

An attacker must craft a malicious PNG file and convince a victim to process it with an AdvanceCOMP binary (e.g., ./advpng -z -1 -f $POC) [1]. No authentication or special network position is required; the victim’s interaction (opening the file) is sufficient. The crash occurs during the unfiltering loop when reading the filter byte and advancing the pointer based on width [1].

Impact

Successful exploitation causes a segmentation fault, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) of the affected application [1][2]. The official description notes “possibly have unspecified other impact,” but no further details are provided in the available references [1][2].

Mitigation

The bug is fixed in later versions of AdvanceCOMP; the SourceForge ticket is marked as closed-fixed [1]. Red Hat released RHSA-2019:2332 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, updating advancecomp to a patched version [2]. Users should apply updates from their distribution or upgrade to the latest release from the AdvanceCOMP project [1][2].